Figure 1.

Mechanical-loading-induced lens deformation decreases intracellular myosin II activity. (A). To evaluate whether lens shape change induced by external mechanical loading influences myosin II activity, a glass stopper weighing ~3.5 g was placed on freshly enucleated lenses (derived from 4-week-old mice) for 60 s before fixation of the lenses with TCA as described in the Methods section. As shown in panel A (representative images), lenses subjected to mechanical loading exhibited an obvious deformation with a significant increase (by ~24%, n = 6) in width but no rupture, compared to control lenses (B,C). Analysis of phosphorylated MLC by immunoblotting revealed a significant decrease (>65%, n = 7) in the levels of phospho-MLC in the load-induced deformed lenses (lanes 1 to 4) relative to their respective controls (lanes 1 to 4) (D). Phospho-MLC levels were normalized to β-actin. The levels of β-actin were found to be the same between the deformed and control lenses (C). C: Control; L: Load-applied lenses. Values presented as Mean ± SEM. ** p < 0.01; **** p < 0.0001. A.U.: Arbitrary Units.