Figure 3.

Determination of signal transduction pathways involved in adiponectin (APN)-mediated heme oxygenase (HO)-1 induction. Hepatocytes were pretreated with a pAMPK inhibitor, compound C (A), or a p38MAPK inhibitor, SB202190 (B), for 30 minutes before treatment with APN for 20 minutes or one or six hours to determine the respective active forms or protein levels by Western blot analysis. Phosphorylated and total forms of AMPK and p38MAPK were harvested at 20 minutes of APN treatment, while the activation of PPARα and consequent HO-1 protein level were determined at one and six hours of treatment, respectively. Three samples were analyzed in each group, and values are presented as the mean ± SEM. Representative results of three separate experiments are shown. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.005 vs. the control group; ^†P < 0.01 vs. the APN-treated group.