Fig. 5.

The representative membrane (A) illustrates the changes in phosphorylated Cx43 (P-Cx43) with age, expressed as the ratio of P-Cx43 to total Cx43 protein. (B) Illustrates the changes in activated-JNK with age, expressed as a ratio of activated JNK to non-activated JNK (NA-JNK). (A–B) Desmin content is shown to verify equal protein loading. (C) Shows the correlation between the ratio of proteins activated-JNK:NA-JNK and P-Cx43:total Cx43 across the age range (n = 5 per age group; ANOVA p < 0.01; linear regression y = 1.0305X–0.3484 = 0.96). (D) p38 (upper blot) and phosphorylated p38 (lower blot) at each age with average data shown below (mean ± SD). The dashed lines show linear regressions to the data. There is no significant correlation between p38 or phosphorylated p38, and age (R² = 0.03 and 0.42, respectively, by Pearson correlation).