Figure 6.

Inhibitor of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway blocked the upregulation of mRNA expression levels of Nrf2, HO-1, NQO1, and GCLM by EE-TT treatment in ARPE-19 cells. ARPE-19 cells were pretreated with or without the inhibitors of 10 μM LY294002, 0.25 μM SCH772984, and 0.5 μM of AEB071 for 1 h, followed by a 24 h exposure to 200 μg/mL EE-TT. The mRNA expression levels of Nrf2 (a), HO-1(b), NQO1 (c), and GCLM (d) for each sample were measured by real-time PCR, and the fold changes of each gene are shown in the bar graph compared with the control sample (nontreated cells, value of 1). All data are shown as mean ± SD, ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001 vs. the control sample (nontreated cells); ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 vs. the sample with EE-TT treated only cells.