Fig. 4

Effects of antidepressants on the levels of mTORC1 upstream activators (phospho-Akt and phospho-ERK) in the rat hippocampus. Rats (n = 6 animals/group) were given a daily injection of Veh (1 mL/kg), ESC (10 mg/kg), or PAR (10 mg/kg) for 21 days with or without restraint stress (6 h daily for 21 days). Levels of phosphorylated Akt and ERK in brain homogenates from the hippocampus were detected by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analyses using anti-phospho-Ser⁴⁷³-Akt (a) and anti-phospho-Thr²⁰²/Tyr²⁰⁴-ERK (b) antibodies. A representative image and quantitative analysis normalized to the levels of total Akt (a) and ERK (b) are shown. The results are expressed as the percentage of vehicle control and represent the mean ± SEM of 6 animals per group. **p < 0.01 versus vehicle controls; ^† p < 0.05 or ^†† p < 0.01 versus stress + vehicle