Figure 5.

 Rapamycin suppresses tumor metastasis by up‐regulating apoptosis signaling. (a) Inhibition of apoptosis declined the effect of rapamycin on B16 cell metastasis. B16 cells were treated with rapamycin in the presence or absence of zVAD (10 μm), and then injected to mice via the tail vein. Twenty‐one days later, the mice were sacrificed and the lung tumor nodules were counted. (b,c) Rapamycin increased the apoptosis potential of B16 cells. B16 cells were treated with rapamycin for 24 h. The cells were harvested for RNA isolation. The expressions of Bcl‐2, Bcl‐xL, Bax, and Bid were determined by real‐time RT‐PCR (b); or the cells were used for protein analysis by Western blotting (c).