Figure 4

Ultrasound in the presence of microbubbles increases the activity of the Akt signalling pathway, while the activity of MAPK signalling remains unchanged. Brains were removed 1.5 hrs (A) or 24 hours (B) post-sonication and snap-frozen using liquid nitrogen. Brain tissue regions with trypan blue leakage in the sonicated hemisphere (+US) and the equivalent area from opposite hemisphere (-US) were then homogenized with RIPA lysis buffer. Equal amounts of extracted proteins were analyzed by western blotting for the indicated proteins. C, Graphical representation of three independent experiments illustrating the marked increase in pAkt (Ser473), pAkt (Thre308) and pGSK3β (Ser9) 1.5 hrs after sonication treatment. The final data were analyzed with student's t-test. Error bars indicate mean ± SE and the star (*) represents p < 0.05 for -US versus +US.