Figure 5.

Effects of baclofen and nimodipine on chloride transporter expression using Western blot analysis. Hippocampal cultures were obtained from day 0 rats and either 10 μM baclofen, a GABA_B agonist, or 5 μM nimodipine, an L-type calcium channel antagonist were added daily to the cultures for one week. Each bar represents one protein preparation that was isolated from a set of cultures treated with either drug and an average (hatched bar) was determined for both drug treatments. (A) NKCC1 steady state protein levels following treatment with a GABAB agonist or an L-type calcium channel antagonist. The IOD of the band labeled with NKCC1 antibodies was divided by the IOD of the band labeled with β-tubulin antibodies. This value was further normalized by dividing it by the value obtained for the control culture for each set of cultures and multiplied by 100%. (*P = 0.8772 and **P = 0.935 using a one sample t-test). (B) KCC2 steady state protein levels following treatment with a GABA_B agonist or an L-type calcium channel antagonist. The IOD of the band corresponding to the monomer and the IOD of the band corresponding to the dimer of KCC2 were added together and divided by the IOD of the band labeled with β-actin antibodies. This value was further normalized by dividing it by the value obtained for the control culture for each set of cultures and multiplied by 100%. (*P = 0.5357 and **P = 0.0001 using a one sample t-test).