FIGURE 4.

Intracellular Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. (A) Representative western blot images for proteins of interest. (B–F) Acute (30-min) Akt/mTOR signaling. (G–K) Prolonged (120-min) Akt/mTOR signaling. The effect of a whole-grain extract in vitro was assessed by 1-factor ANOVA with Fisher’s LSD post hoc test. ^*, P < 0.05 compared with the same condition without whole-grain wheat extract. WG, whole-grain wheat extract supplemented at 0.25% v/v; HBSS, Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution; DMEM, Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium; BCAA, branched-chain amino acids supplemented at 4 mM leucine, 2 mM isoleucine, 2 mM valine; Low, DMEM without amino acids; Medium, DMEM; Max, DMEM supplemented with BCAA and 1.5 nM insulin; Akt, protein kinase B; mTOR, mammalian target of rapamycin; p70s6k, ribosomal protein S6 kinase beta-1; 4EBP1, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein 1; p-, phosphorylated.