Figure 6.

Effect of dihydrofluorinated benzofuran derivatives on HCT116 proliferation, DNA cleavage, PARP-1 cleavage, and Bcl-2 expression. (A) For proliferation, HCT116 cells were treated with 50 and 100 µM of all compounds for 72 h, and the percentage of viable cells was measured by WST-1 assay. The corresponding IC₅₀ fitting curves for only the positive compounds 1 and 2. (B) TUNEL assay for detecting the percentage of apoptotic cells (cleaved DNA) after treating with compounds 1 and 2 at 10, 25, and 50 µM for 72 h, compared to vehicle-treated cells showing no DNA cleavage (no treatment). (C) Western blot for Bcl-2 and cleaved PARP-1 after treatment of cells with compounds 1 and 2 at concentrations of 10, 25, and 50 µM for 72 h. Compound 3 was used as a negative control. β-actin was used as loading control. Data are represented as percentage mean ± SEM (n = 3); * p < 0.05 versus vehicle-treated cells (basal) (one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test).