PACAP counteracts ketamine induced apoptosis and ER stress.

NSCs were plated as single cells and treated with 400 μM ketamine alone or with 100 nM PACAP and 400 μM ketamine. After 24 hours incubation, cells were harvested for Western blot analysis (A, B) or harvested for mRNA extraction and quantitative RT-PCR experiments (C). To obtain quantitative measurements Bcl-2 protein levels and cleaved caspase-3 were normalized against coomassie blue. Data are shown as mean ±SEM (A, n = 5–6; B, n = 3–5, C, n = 4–6). Kruskal-Wallis followed by Dunn’s test. Differences were considered significant at P<0.05. * denotes P<0.05 compared with control, # denotes P<0.05 compared to 400 μM ketamine.