Fig. 5.

Inhibition of JNK and GSK-3 reduces LPC-induced apoptosis, and CHOP mediates LPC-induced apoptosis. A and B: Huh-7 cells were incubated with LPC (85 μM) in the presence of the JNK inhibitor SP (50 μM) for 16 h. Vehicle-treated cells were used as controls. Apoptosis was assessed using morphological criteria after DAPI staining (A). Caspase 3/7 catalytic activity was assessed using a fluorogenic assay and expressed as fold change (B). C and D: Huh-7 cells were incubated with LPC (85 μM) in the presence of the GSK-3 inhibitor GSK-IX (2 μM) for 16 h. Apoptosis was assessed using morphological criteria after DAPI staining (C). Caspase 3/7 catalytic activity was assessed using a fluorogenic assay and expressed as fold change (D). E and F: Huh-7 (wild type; WT) and Huh-7 cells stably expressing shRNA complementary to CHOP (shCHOP) were incubated with LPC (85 μM) for 16 h. Vehicle-treated cells were used as controls. Apoptotic nuclei were counted after DAPI staining, and caspase 3/7 catalytic activity was measured using a fluorogenic assay. All data are means ± SE for 3 experiments. *P < 0.01.