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. 2009 Aug 18;100(12):2402–2410. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2009.01315.x

Figure 3.

Figure 3

 Effects of 5‐fluorouracil (5FU) and/or mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor on apoptosis induction and gene expression. 5FU, rapamycin, and CCI‐779 increased the apoptosis rate of OCUM‐2M (a) and OCUM‐8 (b) scirrhous gastric cancer cells compared with the control. The combined exposure to the combination of 5FU with rapamycin or CCI‐779 significantly (P < 0.05) increased the apoptosis rate of cancer cells, compared to the control and to those treated with 5FU, rapamycin, or CCI‐779 alone. Pan‐caspase inhibitor zVAD‐fmk (50 μM) decreased the rate of apoptosis induced by combination with 5FU and mTOR inhibitor. No significant difference of apoptosis rate was found between the combinations of 5FU with mTOR inhibitor and 5FU alone in the zVAD‐fmk group. (c) The survival rate for OCUM‐2M and OCUM‐8 non‐scirrhous gastric cancer cells following exposure to the combination of mTOR inhibitors was lower than the expected value, evaluating that the combination of 5FU with rapamycin or CCI‐779 shows a synergistic effect in both cell lines. In MKN‐45 and MKN‐74 cells (d), the combination of 5FU with rapamycin or CCI‐779 did not a show significant increase in apoptosis, compared to 5FU alone. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 versus control. Exp, an expected additive value; NS, not significant.