Figure 7. Activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway was involved in the protective effect of astaxanthin on ARPE-19 cells. A: Cells were treated with or without 20 µM astaxanthin (AST) for 24 h and then treated with or without 10 µM LY294002 for 30 min before incubation with or without 200 µM hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) for 24 h. Western blot analysis was done using the corresponding antibodies. Cytosolic fractions were immunoblotted with anti-protein kinase B (anti-Akt), anti-p-Akt, and anti-cleaved caspase-3 antibodies. Nuclear fractions were immunoblotted with anti-Nrf2 and anti-Lamin B antibodies. B: Quantitative analysis of the relative protein levels in ARPE-19 cells. Data are shown as mean ± standard deviation (SD) (n=6); *p<0.05 versus control; # p<0.05 versus H₂O₂ + AST.