The eyes were enucleated and the corneas dissected and immediately placed in stabilization solution (RNAlater; Ambion, Inc., Austin, TX). Total RNA (n = 10 per group) was extracted with a standard RNA isolation protocol (TRIzol; Invitrogen, Inc., Carlsbad, CA). cDNA was synthesized from 1 μg RNA with M-MLV reverse transcriptase (Promega, Inc., Madison, WI) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The following primers were used for PCR from 5′ to 3′: CD36 sense, GATGACGTGGCAAAGAACAG; CD36 antisense, AAAGGAGGCTGCGTCTGTG; VEGF-A sense, ACTGGACCCTGGCTTTACTG; VEGF-A antisense, TATGTGCTGGCTTTGGTGAG; JNK-1 sense, TGTGGAATCAAGCACCTTCACTCTGCTG; JNK-1 antisense, GCAAAC CATTTCTCCCATAATGCACCC; c-JUN sense, ATGCCCTCAACGCCTCGTTCCTCC; c-JUN antisense, CTGCTCGTCGGTCACGTTCTTGGG; β-actin sense, AGCCATGTACGRAGCCATCC; and β-actin antisense, ATGCCACAGGATTCCATACC. 18S (Ambion, Inc.) also served as an internal control. PCR (Taq DNA polymerase; Invitrogen, Inc.) was performed under the following conditions: denaturation at 94°C, annealing at 56°C (CD36, β-actin; VEGF-A: 65°C; JNK-1, c-JUN: 64°C; 18S: 60°C), and extension at 72°C. The predicted sizes of PCR products are 550, 350, 300, 350, 450, and 315 bp for CD36, VEGF-A, JNK-1, c-JUN, β-actin, and 18S respectively. Densitometry values were measured in terms of pixel intensity (Image-Pro Plus software, ver. 4.1; Media Cybernetics, Silver Spring, MD).