Fig. 3. The proliferative effects of TIMP-1 are terminated by the p-Akt inhibitor LY294002. “T” refers to cells transfected with the TIMP-1 plasmid. “T+LY294002” refers to the T group treated with LY294002. (A) LY294002 blocks the p-Akt upregulation as evaluated by Western blotting, β-actin is internal reference. (B) p-Akt levels in control group and TIMP-1 group are quantified by densitometry analysis. p-Akt band intensities are presented as the ratios to total Akt levels. The band intensity in the Con group is arbitrarily set as 1.0, *p < 0.05 versus the Con group. (C) Representative images of BrdU staining in T and T+LY294002 group are shown. Blue cell nuclei are considered as BrdU positive, Total cell nuclei are stained with Hoechst 33258. (D) The BrdU-positive rate is lower in the T+LY294002 group than in the T group, BrdU positive rate of Con is arbitrarily set as 1.0, *p < 0.05 versus the T group.