Figure 6.

DDT protects PC12 cells against AlCl₃ by activating the Akt/Nrf2/HO1 pathway. (A) After the pretreated with DDT for 48 h and AlCl₃ induction for 6 h, the levels of nuclear and cytoplasmic Nrf2, and HO-1 in PC12 cells were detected by western blot analysis. GAPDH and Histone H3 served as loading controls for the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions, respectively. After normalization to internal loading control, densitometric intensity of each protein was shown as the respective expression. The ratio of relative nuclear Nrf2/cytoplasmic Nrf2 expression also was calculated and is shown on the right. (B) PC12 cells were pretreated with the PI3K inhibitor, LY294002 (50 μM) for 8 h, and then treated with AlCl₃ and/or DDT for 4 h. Phosphorylation of Akt (Ser473), Akt, nuclear Nrf2, and HO-1 were evaluated by western blot analysis. GAPDH was used as a loading control. Values are means ± standard derivation from three independent experiments. Ctrl: control group. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01 vs. control group; ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 vs. AlCl₃-induced model group; ^Δp < 0.05, ^ΔΔp < 0.01 vs. DDT at 50 μg/ml group. PI3K, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; Nrf2, nuclear factor E2 related factor 2; HO-1, heme oxygenase-1.