Figure 9

Effect of the combined treatment on brain activity in aged septic rats. Rats were sham operated or subjected to CLP with injection of vehicle (normal saline) or GG-2 (80 nmol/kg of ghrelin and 50 µg/kg of GH) at 5 h after CLP. The brainstem was harvested at 20 h after CLP for protein extraction. (A) Representative Western blots against GHSR-1a, c-fos and β-actin. Quantitative levels of (B) GHSR-1a and (C) c-fos in different groups. Blots were scanned and quantified with densitometry. The levels of protein expression in sham group are designated 1 for comparison. Data are expressed as mean ± SE (n = 5–7 per group). ^#P < 0.05 versus vehicle.