Fig. 6From: Mice deficient in the C-terminal domain of TAR DNA-binding protein 43 develop age-dependent motor dysfunction associated with impaired Notch1−Akt signaling pathwayAge-dependent suppression of the Akt survival pathway in brain and spinal cord of TDP-∆C mice. a Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed downregulation of Hes1 and upregulation of Pten in spinal cord of 700-day-old TDP-∆C (∆C) mice as compared to age-matched wild-type (WT) control mice. The mRNA levels relative to WT are shown as mean ± SD. b Representative images showing the lumbar spinal cord (LSC) anterior horn (AH) of WT and TDP-∆C mice at 700 days of age stained with antibodies for NeuN (red) and (active) phosphorylated-Akt (pAkt) (green) along with the merged images. Scale bar: 50 μm. c-h Progressive loss of active pAkt was observed in LSC and brain of TDP-∆C mice. Nervous tissues of WT or TDP-∆C mice at the indicated ages were analyzed by immunoblotting (c, e, g). Band intensities were semi-quantified using β-actin as an internal control and the relative ratios of pAkt/Akt (left panel) and Akt/Actin (right panel) are plotted (d, f, h). Asterisks are non-specific bands. The data are shown as mean ± SEM (n = 3)Back to article page