Figure 5

Expression of α-SMA in fibroblasts from BALF and bronchial biopsies from patients with SSc and mild asthma. 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 expression of α-SMA was detected using Western Blot with human α-SMA antibodies and further quantified by measuring the optical density of the bands. Values are presented as means ± SEM for n = 5 patients/group.