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. 2014 Apr 3;9(4):e93335. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093335

Figure 2. The conjugate induces G2/M phase arrest and caspase dependent cell death in prostate cancer cells.

Figure 2

Cell cycle distribution of (A) PC-3 and (B) LNCaP cells upon treatment with varying doses of conjugate. Results are presented as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. *represents statistically significant difference with respect to vehicle treated PC-3 and LNCaP cells respectively corresponding to each stage of cell cycle at p<0.05. (C) The effects of varying doses of conjugate (left panel) and resveratrol (right panel) on caspase-8, -9 and -3 activities in PC-3 and (D) LNCaP cells. Results are the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. *represents statistically significant difference with respect to control cells for respective caspases tested at p<0.05. (E) The effect of caspase inhibitors on conjugate-induced cell death in PC-3 and (F) LNCaP cells. The cells were pre-treated with 20 μM of respective caspase inhibitors: Z-LEHDFMK (caspase-9 inhibitor); Z-IETDFMK (caspase-8 inhibitor); and Z-VAD-FMK (general caspase inhibitor) for 1 h before the addition of 20 μM conjugate. Cell death was measured 24 h after conjugate treatment using MTT assay. Data are the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. *and # represents statistically significant difference with respect to control (vehicle) and conjugate treated cells respectively for each cell lines at p<0.05. ns, non-significant.