Figure 9.

Down-regulation of c-Maf and γ-crystallins in the Cryaa-dnNCOA6 transgenic lenses. (A) Immunofluorescence staining was carried out in E16 WT and transgenic lenses. In WT, c-Maf protein expression was up-regulated in the transitional zone and persisted in lens fiber nuclei (A, a–c). However, many lens fiber nuclei lost c-Maf protein expression in the transgenic lens (A, d–f). Nuclei (blue signal) were stained with DAPI. (B) Western blot analysis of the c-Maf protein expression level in WT and transgenic neonatal lenses (2.37- to 2.64-fold reduction in transgenic lenses) and eyeballs (without lens). β-Actin was used as loading control. (C) Some reduction of β-crystallins in transgenic lenses was observed compared with WT lenses. Lens epithelium, LE; transitional zone, TZ. (D) γ-Crystallin proteins expression is down-regulated in transgenic lenses compared with WT lenses. (E) Western blot analysis of αA-crystallin (αA-Cry), αB-crystallin (αB-Cry), β-crystallin (β-Cry), and γ-crystallin (γ-Cry) protein expression levels in neonatal WT and transgenic lenses. β-Actin served as loading control. The protein expression ratios of WT to transgenic lenses are indicated as follows: αA-Cry (1.08–1.18), αB-Cry (1.18–1.23), β-Cry (1.46–1.56), and γ-Cry (1.56–2.95).