Skip to main content
. 2013 Oct 10;8(10):e75973. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075973

Figure 4. Analysis of apoptosis and protein changes after treatment with a specific caspase-3 inhibitor.

Figure 4

A. Quantitation of apoptotic cells in each group. The number of apoptotic cells in the group subjected to 20% cyclic strain increased with time. Treatment with 10 µM z-DEVD-FMK, a caspase-3-specific inhibitor, conferred resistance to apoptosis in human PDL cells, but did not affect apoptosis via other signalling pathways. Bars represent means ± SD of at least three experiments. *p<0.05, static control group vs. 20% cyclic strain group at 24 h and 20% +DEVD group at 24 h groups; ∧ p<0.05, 20% cyclic strain group at 24 h vs. 20% +DEVD group at 24 h. B. Western blot analysis of RhoGDIα, caspase-3, and PARP protein levels. (a) Cells subjected to 20% cyclic strain in the presence of z-DEVD-FMK exhibited decreased cleavage of PARP compared with the level in the 20% cyclic strain group in the absence of z-DEVD-FMK, while the protein levels of RhoGDIα and 19-kDa caspase-3 did not differ significantly. In addition, the 20% +DEVD group exhibited almost no difference in PARP cleavage compared with the static control group, but showed higher RhoGDIα and cleaved caspase-3 protein levels. (b) Quantitative analysis of the protein levels of RhoGDIα, 85-kDa PARP, and cleaved caspase-3 in each group. Bars represent means ± SD of at least three experiments. *p<0.05, static control group vs. 20% cyclic strain group at 24 h and 20% +DEVD group at 24 h groups; ∧ p<0.05, 20% cyclic strain group at 24 h vs. 20% +DEVD group at 24 h.