Figure 6. Inhibition of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway attenuated the TNF-α-induced senescence phenotype of rat nucleus pulposus (NP) cells on day 1 and day 3.

Results showed that LY294002 decreased SA-β-Gal activity (A), increased telomerase activity (B), attenuated G1 cell cycle arrest (C), promoted cell proliferation (D) and down-regulated gene and protein expression of p16 and p53 (E and F) in TNF-α-treated NP cells. The data are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 3). *Indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the 10 ng/mL TNF-α group and the 10 ng/mL TNF-α + LY294002 group.