Fig. 3.

The copper ion chelator TTM can alleviate damage to cervical cancer cells caused by triptolide. A Representative photographs of JC-1-stained HeLa cells. HeLa cells were pretreated with or without TTM (40 μM) for 2 h, followed by treatment with or without triptolide for 48 h. Scale bars: 100 μm. B Measurement of the mitochondrial membrane potential of HeLa cells by JC-1 staining. C Representative images of JC-1-stained SiHa cells. SiHa cells were pretreated with or without TTM (40 μM) for 2 h and then treated with or without triptolide for 48 h. Scale bars: 100 μm. D Measurement of the mitochondrial membrane potential of SiHa cells by JC-1 staining. E, F HeLa and SiHa cells were preincubated with or without 40 μM TTM, 10 μM Fer-1, 10 μM NAC, 20 μM Nec-1, 20 μM 3-MA, or 20 μM Z-VAD for 2 h. Then, HeLa and SiHa cells were treated with 80 nM or 40 nM triptolide for 48 h. Cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay. (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 versus the CON group; #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01, ###p < 0.001 versus the TPL group; ns, not significant.)