Figure 1

GDNF-induced enhancement in the stimulated-release of iCGRP is mediated by Ret-dependent pathways. A) This representative Western blot demonstrates that exposure of DRG to Ret siRNA decreases Ret levels, while scramble siRNA does not change Ret levels. Additionally, a portion of the Ret protein, 31-330, is present on the immunoblot with a band the same size as Ret from DRG. B) Densitometric analysis of three separate Western blots like that in A probing for Ret. C) Peptide release elicited by a 10 minute exposure to Hepes buffer alone (open bar) or Hepes buffer containing 50 nM capsaicin (Cap; dark bars) is expressed as mean percent total peptide content of cells in each well ± SEM (n = 12-18 wells per condition). Asterisks (*) indicate statistically significant differences in band density and iCGRP release between treatment groups and the no GFL condition using an ANOVA with Dunnett's post-hoc test (p < 0.05). Ampersands (@) indicate statistically significant differences between the GFL treatment and the siRNA treated condition using a t-test (p < 0.05). In all cases, release stimulated by capsaicin was significantly higher than basal release.