Fig. 5.

In situ verification of Akt activation in primary astrocytes. Akt phosphorylation was evaluated 16 h after thrombin or other treatments. (A) Phosphorylation of Akt and its inhibition were increase in primary culture astrocytes. Thrombin exhibited increased Akt phosphorylation in primary astrocytes and thrombin-mediated increased Akt phosphorylation was attenuated with inhibitors, which suppress each step of Akt/eNOS/sGC/PKG/PI3K pathway. (B) Akt phosphorylation was increased by exogenous NO by SNP. Treatment of SNP resulted in increased phosphorylation of astrocytic Akt and db-cGMP, a PKG activator, resulted in increased Akt activation, suggesting that the pathway of Akt/eNOS/sGC/PKG/PI3K be present in astrocytes.