Figure 6.

Effect of antioxidants (50 μM NAC or 20 μM ebselen) on the toxic effect of Cd²⁺ (20 μM) in HEI-COI cells. Abbreviations: FL1, green fluorescence; FL2, red fluorescence; M1, first mitosis; M2, second mitosis. (A) Cell viability, determined by MTT colorimetric assay and flow cytometry, after exposure to Cd²⁺ (20 μM) or Cd²⁺ plus antioxidant. (B) Change in MMP level shown by flow cytometry; note the increase of MMP in cells treated with Cd²⁺ plus antioxidant compared with those treated with Cd²⁺ alone. (C) Effect of antioxidants on caspase-9 activation by Cd²⁺ exposure. (D, E) Effect of antioxidants on Cd²⁺-induced reduction of procaspase-9 shown by Western blot analysis (D) and relative intensity; NAC appears to have more protective effect on Cd²⁺ toxicity than does ebselen. (F) Effect of NAC on Cd²⁺-induced ERK activation. Values shown are mean ± SE.

#p < 0.05 compared with Cd²⁺ alone.