Figure 2.

Simvastatin-induced caspase 3 activity. Human A375 (A) and 518A2 (B) melanoma cells were lysed after 24 h or 48 h of incubation with the indicated simvastatin concentrations. The supernatant of the cell lysates (25–40 µg) was incubated with fluorescent caspase 3 substrate (50 µM) for 90 min at 37°C in a reaction buffer described in the Methods section. The estimated EC₅₀ values calculated from the ascendant part of the concentration-response curve gave values between 3.5 µM and 6.5 µM after 24 h, and 1.4–1.7 µM after 48 h of exposure to statin. The symbols represent the mean ± standard error mean (n= 8). Asterisks denote statistical significance versus control (**P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001).