Figure 2.

Antisense Hsp70 DNA induces cell death in breast cancer cells and Ad.asHsp70-infected cells can be rescued by overexpression of human Hsp70. Subconfluent MCF-7 (a) or MDA-MB-468 (b) cells were transfected with pcDNA-3 vector or the same vector with three different antisense Hsp70 sequences (as-Hsp1, -2, or -3) or the entire coding sequence for caspase 8 (Casp.8) or mutated caspase 8 (Casp.8-mut). The successfully transfected cells were visualized by cotransfection (1:10) of pEGFP-N1, and the percentage of green dead cells of all green cells was counted 96 h after transfection. Rescue experiments were performed in a similar manner by cotransfecting pEGFP-N1 with an empty vector, pSV-hsp70-tag or pcDNA3-CrmA into MCF-7 (c) or MDA-MB-468 (d) cells 24 h after the infection with indicated viruses. The percentage of green-surviving cells of all green cells was counted 96 h after the infection. The values represent means of five fields each with a minimum of 100 cells ± SD. The experiments were repeated twice with essentially the same results.