Figure 7.

Celastrol inhibits growth of human osteosarcoma xenograft in vivo. HOS cells were inoculated subcutaneously in the right flank of BALB/c-nu mice. Intraperitoneal administration of vehicle or celastrol (1 or 2 mg/kg) daily was started when tumor volume reached around 200 mm³. When the tumors of control group reached around 1600 mm³, all mice were killed. (a, b) Tumor sizes and body weights were measured daily. (c) The levels of cleaved caspase-3, phospho-JNK and total JNK in tumor xenograft tissues were measured by western blot. (d) The apoptotic status of tumor tissues was assessed by TUNEL assay. H&E staining was used to evaluate the histology. The expression levels of cleaved caspase-3 and phospho-JNK were also examined by immunohistochemistry. Representative images were presented. Bar: 50 μm. (e) Mean optical density of cleaved caspase-3 and phospho-JNK was quantified by Image Pro-Plus. *P<0.05, significantly different compared with control