Figure 9. Ferritin expression in the midgut of blood-fed female Aedes aegypti. Western blot of extracts prepared from midguts dissected from mosquitoes, 24 hours after feeding on bovine blood and probed with antibodies against ferritin. Ferritin purified from iron-loaded A. aegypti pupae (FER) was added during the preparation of the extracts where indicated to serve as a protein degradation control. Protein extracts were prepared from whole midguts from 4 insects, midgut walls from 4 insects, and midgut contents from 3 insects. The protein bands of ferritin HCH and LCH subunits are indicated on the left; the arrow on the right points to a higher molecular weight band.