Fig. 5. GnRH-induced secreted proteins are associated with PI3K/Akt signaling.

Human growth factor antibody array analysis was performed using GnRH-treated and control samples. The membrane was printed with antibodies for 40 growth factors, cytokines, and receptors, with four positive and four negative controls in the upper and lower left corners. Three growth factors or related proteins (IGF-I, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-6) were markedly enriched in the GnRH-treated groups compared with the control groups (a, b). Signaling network analysis was performed using GeneMANIA (http://www.genemania.org) to predict the connections between the three growth factors and PI3K/Akt signaling. The results revealed a positive relationship between each of the three factors (IGF-I, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-6) and PI3K/Akt signaling (c, d). The data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments