Effects of acute alcohol on the Akt activity in the heart depicted as the ratio of phosphorylated Akt over total Akt protein expressions. (A) The differential Akt activity in control (C), low alcohol (LA),moderate alcohol (MA), and high alcohol (HA)-exposed hearts, with representative gels (representative figure in left panel). (B) The effects of exogenous PI3K activator, IGF-1, on cardiac Akt activity in the presence of alcohol (representative gels in right panel). (C) The effects of transfection of heart tissue with dominant-negative Akt, Ad.Akt(K179M) on the Akt activity in the presence of alcohol (representative figure in left panel). (D) The effects of Ad.Akt on cardiac Akt activity in the presence of alcohol (representative gels in right panel). n = 3; *p < 0.05 compared with control.