Fig 5. Western blot analysis of phospho-Akt protein (A), HO-1 protein (B), Nrf2 total (C) and nucleoprotein (D) expressions in the renal tissue of six groups.

β-actin was monitored as the internal standard to ensure similar gel loading of the starting materials in each sample. Blot images were cropped for comparison (E). Electroacupuncture treatment significantly increased the levels of phospho-Akt protein, HO-1 protein, Nrf2 total and nucleoprotein compared with group L or group SEL. In wortmannin-treated rabbits, phosphorylation of Akt was significantly decreased while HO-1 protein, Nrf2 total and nucleoprotein was slightly decreased compared with group EL. All values were expressed as mean ±SD (n = 10; *P<0.05; **P<0.01, using one-way ANOVA and the Bonferroni test for multiple comparisons). The blots were representative of three independent experiments.