Chronic Nicotine Modifies Skeletal Muscle Na,K-ATPase Activity through Its Interaction with the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor and Phospholemman
Figure 4
The nAChRα1 subunit and the Na,K-ATPase α1 and α2 subunits and PLM co-immunoprecipitate in rat diaphragm muscle after 21–31days of sham or oral nicotine treatment.
Skeletal muscle protein was prepared from control and nicotine treated animals and immunoprecipitated (IP) with monoclonal antibodies against the nAChRα1 subunit. Precipitates were probed by Western blot (WB) using antibodies against the nAChRα1, Na,K-ATPase α1 and α2, and PLM. A positive control (lane 1, input) confirmed the presence of each species in the control sample before IP. Each panel is a representative Western blot from 7–8 independent experiments. Protein homogenates were prepared using diaphragm tissue from the same muscles used for RMP and activity measurements (Fig. 1 & 2C, oral nicotine).