Figure 3.

Impact of gap junctional communication on apoptosis of HeLa cells. Apoptosis induced by SN (1 μM, 5 h) or α-Fas (100 ng/ml, 5 h) in HeLa-Cx43 cells is significantly reduced by blocking the GJ channels with meclofenamic acid (M, 100 μM) and heptanol (H, 0.25 mM). Apoptosis was measured by annexin V-FITC/PI staining and quantified using flow cytometry. The percentage of apoptotic cells from the total cell number is expressed as mean±S.E.M. *P<0.05; NG; n≥3 in at least three different cell cultures