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. 2013 Dec 31;289(7):3842–3855. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M113.515254

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2.

The absence of α6 integrin in the developing lens leads to low expression of NFκB and its target survival proteins resulting in high levels of caspase-3 activity and cell death by apoptosis. A–E, E18.5 lens cryosections from α6+/+ (upper panels) and α6−/− (lower panels) mice were co-labeled for: A, cleaved caspase-3 (red), F-actin (blue), α6 integrin (green); B, TUNEL (red), nuclei (blue); C, NFκB p65 (red), nuclei (blue), F-actin (green); D, Bcl-2 (red), nuclei (blue), F-actin (green); and E, survivin (red), nuclei (blue), and F-actin (green). All images were obtained by confocal microscopy. A–E are single optical slices of 1 μm thickness, selected from an acquired z-stack. D is a projection image (5 μm thickness), acquired from a z-stack of 1-μm thick optical slices. Scale bar = 20 μm in all images. Results show that in the absence of α6 integrin, expression of the transcription factor NFκB (C, red), and its downstream effectors Bcl-2 (D, red) and survivin (E, red), were significantly diminished, inducing a high level of caspase-3 activity and cell death by apoptosis. Whole eye cryosections were examined from a minimum of three different embryos taken from each of the α6+/+ and α6−/− mice groups and are thus representative of three independent studies.