Western blot analysis

The studies utilized postsynaptic density protein (PSD)-95 antibody (1:1,000, molecular weight of 95 kDa, Cell Signaling, Danvers, MA) to detect PSD-95 level. An β-Actin antibody (1:5,000, molecular weight of 42 kDa, Sigma, St. Louis, MO) was used to detect non-targeted protein β-Actin. The quantification of Western-blot was accomplished as described in other studies ⁴⁹. In brief, we analyzed the signal intensity via Quantity One image analysis program (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). Two steps were used to quantify the Western blots. At the first step, β-Actin was used to standardize protein amounts (e.g., calculating the ratio of PSD-95 in relation to β-Actin amount) and limit the differences in the protein amount loaded. At the second step, we expressed the protein levels obtained from the treatment as a % in relation to control condition.