Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 14 pp 13905—13923

Figure 1. CRP isoforms are able to cross CECs. (A) Experimental setup. CRP (10 μg/ml) was added to either the apical or basolateral chamber of the Transwell for 48h, mimicking blood vessel lumen and RPE, respectively. The presence of CRP in the opposite chamber where it was added was determined by Western blot and ELISA, and CRP bound to the cell surface was determined by immunofluorescence. (B) Western blot of mCRP present in apical (Up) and basolateral (Down) chamber (N=4). (C) ELISA of mCRP (ng/ml) from apical (Up) and basolateral (Down) supernatants. Values are expressed as mean ± SD (N=3). (D) Western-blot of pCRP present in apical (Up) and basolateral (Down) supernatants (N=5). (E) Immunofluorescence of CRP (red) stained with monoclonal antibodies against mCRP (3H12) or pCRP (1C6). Nuclei stained with DAPI. Scale bar = 50 μm (N=6). (F) Quantification of CRP binding measured as stained area divided by the number of cells per image (μm²/cell). Results are expressed as mean area (μm²/cell) ± SD. Statistical analysis was performed by One-Way ANOVA and Tukey’s posthoc. **P<0.01 vs. all conditions. (G) Reconstruction of x-z sections with a 0.3 μm z axis step of immunofluorescence images. Images shown are representative of six independent experiments.