|
Figure 5 Possible molecular mechanisms of A2-4-2-4. (A) The COX-2 gene expression, measured by qRT-PCR, was high in embryos treated with AA alone but significantly lower in those treated with AA plus C25, NS398, or A2-4-2-4. (B) A2-4-2-4 showed a synergistic effect with NS398 in suppressing inflammation. While the COX-2 expression level in embryos treated with AA and a sub-dosage of NS398 was 0.37 folds of that in embryos treated with AA alone, the COX-2 level was near zero in the embryos treated with NS398; A2-4-2-4. (C) The tnnt-2 expression, an indicator of cardiac hypertrophy, was high in embryos treated with AA alone but significantly lower in embryos treated with AA plus MEK-I or AA plus A2-4-2-4. (* indicates statistical significance between the compound and AA control, t-test, p < 0.05.) (D) Western blotting with anti-phosphorylated MAPK (pMAPK) showed that A2-4-2-4 moderately suppressed the MAPK signaling pathway. The normalized pMAPK level was done by dividing the band intensity in pixels using photoshop of pMAPK by that of β-actin for each sample.