Fig. 6

Combined curcumin and hUC-MSCs treatment activated the AKT/GSK-3β/β-TrCP/Nrf2 axis in microglia in vitro. A Representative images of immunofluorescence analysis of Nrf2 expression in microglia treated with the AKT inhibitor MK2206, the GSK3β activator sodium nitroprusside (SNP) (a GSK3β phosphorylation inhibitor) and the GSK3β inhibitor TDZD-8. Nrf2 (red), nuclei (blue). B–E Representative western blots (B) and quantitative data for the expression of Nrf2 in the nucleus (C) and the downstream proteins of Nrf2 pathway including HO-1 (D) and NQO1 (E) with different treatments. F–I Representative western blots (F) and quantitative data for the AKT (Ser473) (G), GSK-3β (Ser9) (H), and β-TrCP in the nucleus (I) related for the upstream proteins of Nrf2 pathway. Cur curcumin, scale bars = 20 μm; N = 5; N.S. no significant difference, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001