Fig. 8
Changes in enzymes of the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) following DNA amyloid-β 1–42 peptide (Aβ42) immunization. Gray-level intensities (arbitrary units) of the protein bands from the Western blots shown in Fig. 7 were semiquantitatively analyzed using the ImageJ software package (National Institutes of Health). Black bars represent levels found in triple-transgenic Alzheimer’s disease (3xTg-AD) control mice (n = 7); blue bars represent levels found in DNA Aβ42 trimer-immunized mice (n = 7); and gray bars represent levels in wild-type mice (n = 2). a Analyses for MEK. b Analyses for ERK. c Analyses for GSK3β. The first graph in each row shows gray-level intensities for total enzyme; the second graph shows gray-level intensities for the active (phosphorylated) forms of the respective kinases; and the third graph shows the normalized data in which the levels of the phosphorylated kinases were calculated as a percentage of the total enzyme levels for each of the mouse brain lysates used. *, **, and *** indicate p values of ≤ 0.05, ≤ 0.01 and ≤ 0.005, respectively (Mann-Whitney U test)