Fig. 4.

Amitriptyline and desipramine promoted ROS generation, and cell death was attenuated by an antioxidant. (A) SH-SY5Y cells were incubated with amitriptyline (Ami, 60 μM) or desipramine (Desi, 50 μM) for the indicated times and the cellular level of ROS was spectrofluorometrically measured using DCF-DA (5 μM). The reading from the hydrogen peroxide-incubated cells (400 μM for 30 min) served as 100% control (n = 4, ^**p < 0.01 and ^***p < 0.001 vs. vehicle treated; ns, not significant). (B) SH-SY5Y cells were preincubated with Trolox (400 μM) for 30 min and then incubated with amitriptyline (60 μM) or desipramine (50 μM) for 24 h. The viability of the cells was then measured using MTS reagent (n = 4, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001 vs. drugs only).