Effects of PEA on apoptosis.

<p>By Western blot analysis, Bax expression was appreciably increased in SN from PPARαWT and PPARαWT mice (panels A and A1) after intoxication. On the contrary, PEA treatment prevented the MPTP-induced Bax expression. Moreover, a basal level of Bcl-2 expression was detected in SN from PPARαKO sham-operated mice (panels B and B1). Eight days after MPTP, Bcl-2 expression was significantly reduced in SN from MPTP mice (panels B and B1). PEA significantly reduced the MPTP-induced inhibition of Bcl-2 expression (panels B and B1). The relative expression of the protein bands was standardized for densitometric analysis to β-actin levels, and reported in panel <b>a1</b> and <b>b1</b> are expressed as mean ± s.e.m. from n = 5/6 brains for each group. *<i>P</i><0.01 <i>versus</i> sham, °<i>P</i><0.01 <i>versus</i> MPTP+vehicle. No positive staining for Bax was observed in the SN tissues from PPARαKO sham-operated mice (<b>C</b>). MPTP caused an increase in Bax expression in PPARαWT (<b>D</b>) and PPARαKO mice. PEA treatment reduced the degree of positive staining for Bax in SN from PPARαWY (<b>E</b>). On the contrary, positive staining for Bcl-2 was observed in the brain from PPARαKO sham-operated mice (<b>F</b>) while the staining was reduced in MPTP PPARαWT (<b>G</b>) and significantly reduced in PPARαKO ice (<b>H</b>). PEA treatment attenuated the loss of positive staining for Bcl-2 in SN from MPTP-subjected PPARαWT mice (<b>I</b>). The assay was carried out by using Optilab Graftek software on a Macintosh personal computer (CPU G3-266). *<i>p</i><0.01 vs. Sham. °<i>p</i><0.01 vs <i>MPTP</i>+vehicle.