Figure 5.

Act A (100 ng/mL) suppressed the endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced IRE1-TRAF2-ASK1-JNK/p38 cascade in PC12 cells.

(A, B) Western blot assays of the expression of total and phosphorylated JNK and p38. (C, D) Western blot assays of the expression of IRE1, TRAF2 and ASK1. Protein expression was quantified by optical density and normalized to β-actin. The fold change compared with the DMSO group for each protein is expressed as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. One-way analysis of variance followed by Bonferroni post hoc tests were used for statistical analysis. *P < 0.05, vs. DMSO group; #P < 0.05, vs. TG group. DMSO: Dimethyl sulfoxide; TG: thapsigargin; Act A: Activin A; JNK: c-Jun N-terminal kinase; p-JNK1: phospho-c-JNK1; p-p38: phospho-p38; IRE: inositol requiring enzyme-1; TRAF2: tumor necrosis factor-receptor-associated factor 2.