LPS accelerates Cx43 degradation in cycloheximide-treated astrocytes.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Astrocytes were pretreated with 2 µg/ml LPS (<b>LPS</b>) for 8 h followed by treatment for 1, 3, or 5 h with 10 µg/ml of cycloheximide in the absence (<b>CHX</b>) or in the continued presence of LPS (<b>LPS+CHX</b>), then the cells were lysed and the whole cell lysates subjected to10% SDS-PAGE, and analyzed by immunoblotting with antibodies against total Cx43 (<b>Cx43</b>, P0, P1, and P2). The blots were then stripped and reprobed with antibodies against GAPDH (<b>GAPDH</b>, loading control). (<b>B</b>) The blots from 3 independent experiments were subjected to densitometric analyses for total Cx43 (P0 plus P1 plus P2) and the results expressed as the density of the bands in the test sample relative to those in the time zero sample of <b>CHX</b> or <b>LPS+CHX</b>. *<i>P</i><0.05, **<i>P</i><0.01 compared to CHX using independent-sample <i>t</i>-test.