Fig. 5.

Effect of perinatal nicotine exposure on protein kinase B/glycogen synthase kinase-3β (Akt/GSK-3β) protein abundances in neonatal rat brain. Brain tissues were isolated from 9-day-old (P9) neonatal rat pups in both nicotine-exposed and saline control groups. Protein abundance in brain tissue was determined by Western blot analysis. GAPDH protein density served as internal normalized control. Total Akt (A), phosphorylated (p-)Akt (B), total GSK-3β (C), and p-GSK-3β (D) protein densities are shown in saline control (▲) and nicotine-exposed (■) groups. Data are means ± SE of animals (n = 6) from each group. *P < 0.05 vs. control, as determined by Student’s t test.