Fig. 4

Ratio of activated ERK-1 and ERK-2. Ratio of activated (phosphorylated to total, p/t) Extracellular-signal regulated kinases-1 and -2 at different time points. a ERK-1 (p44) and b ERK-2 (p42). X axis presents ratio of p/t ERK-1 or -2, Y axis represents different biopsies (1–3) for each group (see also legend Fig. 3). Values presented in mean ± SD. For ERK-1, we observed a significant increase in p/t ratio in the helium-preconditioning group in the second biopsy (taken after preconditioning) compared to baseline. In the anaesthetic preconditioning group, we observed a significant increase compared to controls for biopsy 2 and 3. No significant differences in the ratio of p/t ERK-2 were observed at the different time points