In Western blot analyses, lithium suppresses MPTP-induced calpain 1 expression, but up-regulates MEF 2A and 2D and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) levels in rat dopaminergic N27 cells (A). As shown by quantitative density analyses, 1mM and/or 2mM LiCl inhibits calpain-1 expression (B), increases MEF-2A (C), MEF-2D (D), and TH (E) levels following normalization with the loading control, GAPDH. One-way ANOVA, Dunnett’s post-hoc test (n=3–4): *: p<0.05, **: p<0.01.