Figure 3

Expression of fibronectin isoforms in fibroblasts from BALF and bronchial biopsies from patients with mild asthma and SSc. Fibroblasts were cultured from bronchial biopsies and BALF from patients with SSc and mild asthma and harvested in lysis buffer as described in the Method section. Equal amounts of protein were loaded on 4–12% Bis-Tris gels. The production of the alternatively spliced isoform ED-A fibronectin (A) and cellular fibronectin (B) was measured using Western Blot with human ED-A fibronectin and cellular fibronectin antibodies. Quantification of fibronectin expression was performed by measuring the optical density of the bands. Values are presented as means ± SEM for n = 5 patients/group.