AKT1 and gastric cancer: Tuft cells are uniquely equipped among IEC to produce ACh and may play a critical role in stemness regulation via the EGFR/Akt axis.39 M3R, in particular, was reported as a potential link between ACh and the activation of the EGFR/Akt pathway in gastric cancer cells.59 Despite the observation that male and female Vil.M3R mice displayed no changes in the expression of PI3K, divergent phenotypes were observed between males and females in downstream signaling of the PI3K/Akt pathway.