Fig. 5.

Effects of Nrf2 knockdown and pan-caspase inhibitor on cell distribution at sub-G0/G₁, G₁, S, and G₂/M phases in quercetin-treated MM cells. Cells were transfected with 10 nM Nrf2-targeting siRNA (siNrf2) or Stealth RNAi control (siC) for 24 h, after which cells were incubated with quercetin (20 μM) for 48 h in the presence or absence of Z-VAD (10 μM). (A) Cells were then analyzed using a flow cytometry after staining with propidium iodide (20 μg/ml). The percentages of cell population in sub-G₀/G₁ phase were calculated from three independent experiments. Representative results were obtained from one of three independent experiments. (B) The quantitative data are shown as mean ± S.D. *P < 0.05 for Z-VAD-treated cells vs. respective control cells. ^#P < 0.05 for siNrf2-transfected cells vs. respective siC-transfected cells.