Curcumin-ND induced ROS generation in MCL cells. (A) Granta and NCEB cells were treated with 20 μM curcumin-ND (C-ND, red peak) and empty-ND (E-ND, blue peak) for 1, 3, and 6 h at 37°C. ROS production in live cells was measured by flow cytometry as described in ‘Materials and methods.’ In the two cell lines, there is an increase in ROS after curcumin-ND compared with empty-ND. (B) Granta cells were incubated with medium alone (untreated), empty-ND, NAC (10 mM), curcumin-ND (20 μM), and combination of curcumin-ND and NAC. Cells were pretreated with NAC for 4 h prior to incubation with curcumin-ND. After 48 h, cells were analyzed for apoptosis. Early and late apoptotic percentages (annexin-V/PI-positive) from each dot plot were combined to represent total apoptosis (summarized in the bar graph; n = 3).