FIGURE 3.

Ang2 augments cell survival and suppresses cell apoptosis of MCF-7 cells in vitro under the conditions of growth stress. MCF-7 control GFP cells, Ang2#1 and Ang2#52 cells were incubated with serum-free/phenol red-free medium as serum-starvation model (A) and (B) or with 10% charcoal-treated FBS/phenol red-free medium containing 100 μm of cobalt chloride (CoCl₂) as a hypoxia model (C and D). In A and C, the numbers of survival cells at each time point were analyzed by trypan blue dye exclusion, counted, and normalized to the cell number of each group seeded on day 0. In B and D, apoptosis in the cells cultured under serum-starvation (B) or a hypoxia condition (D) for 4 days were analyzed using a cell death detection ELISA kit. Data were shown as relative apoptosis by normalizing each absorbance value to that of MCF-7 control cells. All data were statistically analyzed using t test. *, p < 0.001 and error bars: mean ± S.D. Results in A–D are representative of three independent experiments with similar results.