Fig. 1.

Protective effects of Artemisinin against H₂O₂-induced cytotoxicity in D407 cells. (A) The structure of Artemisinin. (B) Cells were treated with Artemisinin (3–100 µM) or 0.1% DMSO (vehicle control) for 24 h and cell viability was measured using the MTT assay. Cells were pre-treated with Artemisinin at indicated concentration or 0.1% DMSO (vehicle control) for 2 h and then incubated with or without 100 µM H₂O₂ for a further 24 h. Cell viability and the release of LDH were measured by MTT assay (C) and LDH assay (D), respectively. (E) Apoptosis of D407 cells was detected by staining with Hoechst 33342 and visualized by fluorescence microscopy. The number of apoptotic nuclei with condensed chromatin was counted from the photomicrographs and presented as a percentage of the total number of nuclei. ^#P<0.05, ^###P<0.005 versus control group;**P<0.01,***P<0.005 versus the H₂O₂-treated group were considered statistically significant differences.