Fig. 2.

Changes in pancreatic levels of pro-apoptotic Bax and Bak proteins in models of acute pancreatitis. Pancreatitis was induced in rats and mice as described in the legend to Fig. 1. (A) Bax and Bak protein levels were measured by Western blot analysis in pancreatic tissue of control and pancreatitic animals at indicated times after the induction of pancreatitis. Blots were re-probed for ERK1/2 to confirm equal protein loading. (B) Western blot was performed as in (A) on pancreatic tissue from rats and mice with fully developed pancreatitis: at 7 h in the CR models, 24 h in L-arg model, and 72 h in the CDE model. The intensities of Bak band on the immunoblots were quantified by densitometry and normalized to that of ERK1/2 (loading control) in the same sample. The mean ratio of Bak/ERK1/2 intensities in animals with pancreatitis was further normalized to that in control group at the same time point. Values are means±SE from at least 3 animals per group. *p<0.05 compared with control.