Akt isoforms differentially regulate axon growth but do not affect axon establishment.

<p>Hippocampal neurons were nucleofected with the indicated shRNAs and a GFP-expressing plasmid, and analysed later on DIV 3. <b>A.</b> Neurons were fixed and anti-Tau-1 antibody was used as an axonal marker. The photographs correspond to a representative field for each experimental condition in which the Tau-1 positive and/or GFP-positive neurons were observed. Scale bar: 25 µm. <b>B.</b> Data indicated that Akt isoforms disruption did not induce a statistically significant change in neuron polarity (each condition was compared to control using Student's t test; bars represent mean ± standard deviation). <b>C.</b> However, when the axonal length were determined (form those GFP-positive and Tau-1-positve neurons), the disruption of both Akt2 and Akt3 caused a reduction of axon length (samples were compared to control using Mann-Withney test as they did not show a normal distribution; bars represent mean ± SEM; **: <i>p</i><0.01, ***: <i>p</i><0.001).