Fig. 4.

Effects of nifedipine (gray bars) on apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress during and after 4 weeks of incubation compared to glial-cell line derived neurotrophic factor (open bars) and controls (black bars). Cell viability was tested by investigating slice media for lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (A, n=10), as well as for DOPAC and dopamine release (B, n=6). Slice extracts were evaluated for proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1β, IL-1β; macrophage inflammatory protein-2, MIP-2; tumor necrosis factor-α, TNF-α (C, n=6). Apoptosis was measured by examining caspase-3 activity in slice extracts (D, n=10). Western Blot analysis of catalase (2 isoforms at 60 and 140 kDa) performed on slice extracts revealed the level of oxidative stress (E and F, n=8). Values are given as mean±SEM optical density (A, D, F) or ng/ml correlated to 1 mg protein (B) or pg per 1 mg protein. Western Blots were normalized to actin expression (E and F). Statistical analysis was performed by one-way ANOVA with a subsequent Bonferroni posthoc test (*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001).