After electrophoresis, the proteins were blotted onto a PVDF membrane according to BMN 673 solubility dmso standard protocols. After blocking in 5% non-fat milk, the membrane was incubated with the appropriate primary antibody (anti-iNOS, 1 : 500 or anti-SOCS-1 1 : 1000) overnight at 4°, and with the appropriate secondary antibody (1 : 10 000) (GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI) for 2 hr at room temperature. Equal protein loading was shown by re-probing the membrane with an anti-actin antibody (1 : 10 000) (Sigma) and with

the appropriate secondary antibody. After this incubation period, the blots were washed several times with saline buffer (TBS/T – 25 mm Tris–HCl, 150 mm NaCl, 0·1% Tween) and incubated with ECF substrate (enhanced chemifluorescence substrate) (alkaline phosphatase substrate; 20 μl ECF/cm2 of membrane) for 5 min at room temperature and then submitted to fluorescence detection at 570 nm using a Molecular Imager Versa Doc MP 4000 System (Bio-Rad). For each membrane, the analysis of band intensity was performed using the Quantity One software (Bio-Rad). Nitric oxide production was assessed by the Griess Reagent System (Promega Corporation, Madison, WI), a colorimetric assay that detects the presence of nitrite (), a stable reaction product of nitric oxide (NO) and molecular oxygen. Briefly, 50 μl cell medium, collected from each well, was incubated

Trametinib for 5 min with 50 μl sulfanilamide, followed by a further incubation of 5 min with 50 μl of N-1-napthylethylenediamide. The optical density of the samples was measured at 540 nm in a microplate PAK5 reader and the nitrite concentration was determined by comparison with a standard curve obtained for a solution of sodium nitrite prepared

in RPMI-1640. Immunocytochemistry studies were performed in N9 microglia cells according to established protocols. Briefly, following transfection and LPS exposure, cells were washed twice with PBS and fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 20 min at room temperature. The cells were then permeabilized for 2 min with 0·2% Triton X-100 and non-specific binding epitopes were blocked by incubating the cells for 30 min with a 5% BSA solution prepared in PBS. Cells were incubated overnight at 4° with primary antibodies against the CD11b integrin (1 : 500) and α-tubulin (1 : 1000) prepared in PBS containing 1% BSA. Following two washing steps with PBS, cells were incubated for 2 hr at room temperature with the respective secondary antibodies (anti-rat Alexa Fluor-594 conjugate and anti-rabbit Alexa Fluor-488 conjugate; Molecular Probes, Leiden, the Netherlands) diluted 1 : 500 in PBS containing 1% BSA. Finally, all coverslips containing the samples were rinsed twice in PBS and incubated in the dark with DAPI (1 μg/ml) for 5 min, before being mounted on glass slides using Moviol (Sigma).