Fig. 5
Signal transduction study of BDNF-induced NR1 phosphorylation in the spinal cord. The spinal cord slices were randomly separated into groups and pre-treated with a variety of specific inhibitors 30 min prior to BDNF stimulation. These inhibitors included PD98059 (PD) to block the MEK/ERK pathway, U73122 (U) to block the PLC pathway, bisindolylmaleimide I (BIM) to block PKC, LY294002 (LY), and wortmannin (WM) to block the PI3K/Akt pathway. Western blot (a) showed that PD had no effect on BDNF-induced NR1 phosphorylation while the rest of the inhibitors attenuated BDNF-elicited phosphorylation of NR1 at Ser896. Results were summarized in (b) indicating that the PLC/PKC and the PI3K/Akt, but not the MEK/ERK pathway was involved in BDNF-initiated NR1 phosphorylation. *p < 0.05 vs. control; #p < 0.05 vs. BDNF