Figure 5.

Sulforaphane (SFN) exerts antioxidant stress through PI3K/Akt and Nrf2 signaling pathways. SFN, as a new type of Nrf2 agonist, activate Nrf2 by promoting PI3K/Akt signaling pathways, mainly enhancing the phosphorylation of Akt. Nrf2 is translocated into nuclei after released from Keap1 to induce the transcription of phase II antioxidative enzymes NQO-1, HO-1, GCLC, and GCLM. However, the direct relationship between PI3K/Akt and Nrf2 requires future researches to elaborate. Nrf2 – nuclearfactor-E2-related factor 2; PI3K – phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; Akt – serine/threonine kinase; NQO-1 – NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1; HO-1 – heme oxygenase-1; GCLC – glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit; GCLM – glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit.