Cholesterol sequestration was able to activate Rho upon treatment with MβCD.

<p>Fibroblasts, treated with MβCD 10 mM, for 20 or 40 minutes, were submitted to Rho-GTP pull down assay. In (A), left side, we have the western-blotting result of the pull-down eluates showing that after 20 or 40 minutes of cholesterol removal Rho is activated in fibroblasts. In (A), right side, we have cell lysates that were not submitted to the pull-down assay showing the total amount of Rho present in each experimental group. Control untreated fibroblasts and cell extract incubated with GDP were used as controls of the Rho activation and of the pull-down technique, respectively. (B) Graph showing the densitometric analysis of activated Rho seen in the autoradiogram of the upper panel (A) normalized by the corresponding band at the cell lysates. The data are mean ± standard error of two independent experiments. Data are expressed in arbitrary units (folds in relation to control).