Figure 4.

Effect of down-regulation of Beclin1 on apoptosis and cell cycle in Miapaca2 cells. A. Apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry for annexin-V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) dual labeling. Cytograms of annexin-V-FITC binding (abscissa) versus PI uptake (ordinate) show three distinct populations: (1) viable cells in gate Q3; (2) early apoptotic cells in gate Q4; and (3) cells that have lost membrane integrity as a result of very late apoptosis in gate Q2. Percentage of apoptotic cells is gate Q4 plus gate Q2. The apoptotic rate was similar in Beclin1-siRNA transfection Miapaca2 cells (0.01 ± 0.00)% compared with (0.00 ± 0.00)% of NC-siRNA. B. Cell cycle was also determined by flow cytometry. The percentage of Beclin1-siRNA transfected Miapaca2 cells in the G₂ phase was (7.00 ± 2.82)% compared with (7.92 ± 2.56)% of NC-siRNA; (83.80 ± 2.60)% compared with (81.15 ± 2.75)% in the G₁ phase, and in the S phase was (9.20 ± 0.22)%compared to (10.93 ± 0.19)% accordingly (p < 0.01).