Abstract

The serine-threonine kinase Akt plays an important role in survival pathways by inactivating downstream apoptogenic factors in many cell systems. In the following study, we investigated whether or not the activation of the Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway could reduce neuronal apoptosis following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: control group, SAH group, SAH+ saline group, SAH+ vehicle group, SAH+ Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) group, and SAH+Ly294002 (PI3K pathway inhibitor) group. All SAH animals were subjected to injection of autologous blood into the cisterna magna twice (on day 0 and on day 1). The administration was executed via cerebral ventricle 30 minutes before the induced SAH on day 0 and was continued every 24 hours for 72 hours. Whole brains were obtained on day 2. Phospho-Akt (pAkt) expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. The neuronal apoptosis was evaluated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated uridine 5′-triphosphate-biotin nick end-labeling (TUNEL). We found that the PI3K-Akt pathway was activated in the brain after experimental SAH. Moreover, administration of IGF-1 significantly elevated pAkt expression and decreased the percentage of apoptotic neurons following SAH, while administration of Ly294002 suppressed pAkt expression and induced increased neuronal apoptosis following SAH. Taken as a whole, our results suggested that the activation of PI3K-Akt pathway could mediate the protective effect against neuronal apoptosis after SAH.