Figure 7
BV treatment reduces the expression of GFAP protein and prevents neuronal cell death via modulation of cell survival signaling pathways. A representative of Western blot analysis shows increased expression of the MAP protein (A), which is reduced in BV-treated hSOD1G93A mice at the symptomatic stage (B). The intensities of the immunoreactive bands were compared to the corresponding bands from the brainstem or spinal cord of saline-treated mice (A). Quantification of the intensity of the immunoreactive band was compared to the corresponding bands from the brainstem or spinal cord of BV-treated hSOD1G93A mice (n = 3) (B). * indicates a non-specific immunoblot band. Western blots show that the expression of active p38 in the spinal cord was reduced by BV treatment compared to the levels observed in age-matched hSOD1G93A mice (n = 3) (D). The expression level of phospho-Akt protein was increased in the brain stem and lumbar spinal cord by BV treatment (E). The amount of phospho-ERK protein was augmented after BV treatment in tissue extracts from the brainstem and spinal cord of hSDO1G93A mice (F). Quantitative analysis of immunoblot. The image is representative of three independent experiments. The optical density was measured for each band, and values for Iba-1 were compared with tubulin after correcting for the total protein content. The Results of the densitometric quantifications are the means ± SEM of triplicate samples. The data were analyzed using a t-test. *p < 0.01 versus the corresponding saline-treated group. BV: bee venom, BS: brainstem, SP: spinal cord