Figure 6.

Bone morphogenetic protein-7 application blocks TGFβ2-induced EMT and apoptosis. Phase-contrast microscopy showed that treatment with TGFβ2 resulted in progressive cell loss from day 3 of culture (A), indicated by cellular blebbing (dashed-line arrows), exposed areas of bare lens capsule (asterisks), and resultant lens capsular wrinkling (solid-line arrows). By day 5 of culture (B), there is marked cell loss and more apparent lens capsular wrinkling (solid-line arrows). Explants cotreated with BMP-7 and TGFβ2 retained a confluent epithelial monolayer throughout the 5-day culture period (C–D), appearing similar to untreated control explants (E) as well as explants treated with BMP-7 alone (F). Images are representative of 3 independent experiments. Scale bar: 100 μm.