Figure 3.

AdNEP infection augments paclitaxel induced apoptosis in DU145 cells. (A) Relative viable cell number of cells infected with AdNEP or AdLacZ in combination with paclitaxel. Following infection with AdNEP or AdLacZ at 10 pfu/cell, cells were treated with paclitaxel at 5 or 10 ng/ml, or vehicle for 48 h and counted at 5 days. Combination therapy with AdNEP plus paclitaxel significantly decreased cell viability. (B) Total cell lysates from DU145 cells treated as indicated and described above were separated by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotted with mAbs to caspase-3 and PARP-1. Infection with AdNEP increased caspase-3 and PARP-1 cleavage products compared with paclitaxel treatment of control cells infected with AdLacZ. (C) Representative immunostain of cells treated with AdLacZ or AdNEP plus paclitaxel. (D) Apoptotic index was calculated as the number of positive cells × 100/total number of cells counted under ×400 magnification in 10 randomly selected areas in each sample. a, P<0.01 compared with AdLacZ plus vehicle treated cells. b, P<0.01 compared with AdLacZ plus paclitaxel treated cells.