Fig. 3.

Rosuvastatin protects podocytes from adriamycin-induced apoptosis. Podocytes pre-incubated for 24 h with rosuvastatin or DMSO were exposed to adriamycin (ADR, 0.25 μg/ml) for 48 h. Hoechst staining was performed (A) and the percentage of apoptosis was measured (B). Additionally, cells were dual-labeled with FITC-Annexin V and propidium iodide and fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS) performed. Representative contour plots (C) show virtually all of the cells in control and rosuvastatin-treated groups were viable, as detected in the lower-left quadrant (FITC⁻, PI⁻). ADR exposure significantly increased the percentage of apoptotic (FITC⁺, PI⁻) cells, as detected in the lower-right quadrant. Pre-incubation with rosuvastatin largely abrogated the rightward shift induced by ADR, consistent with a prosurvival effect. The results of three separate FACS experiments were pooled and averaged results are shown graphically.