Figure 1.

AGEs induced apoptosis in mesangial cells. (a) Cells were treated with various concentrations of AGEs (150–300 mg/l) for 0, 12, 24 or 48 h, and cell viability was estimated using the MTT assay. The data are presented as the mean±S.E.M. from at least three independent experiments. *P<0.05 versus Control, **P<0.01 versus Control. (b) Cells were treated with various concentrations of AGEs (150–300 mg/l) for 24 h. Cell death was estimated using a cell death detection ELISA^PLUS assay. The data are presented as the mean±S.E.M. from at least three independent experiments. *P<0.05 versus Control, **P<0.01 versus Control. (c) Cells were pre-treated with or without Z-VAD-fmk (25 μM) and incubated with AGEs (250 mg/l) for 24 h. Cell apoptosis was detected using the annexin V-FITC/PI kit. Viable cells (annexin V⁻/PI⁻), early apoptotic cells (annexin V⁺/PI⁻), late apoptotic cells and necrotic cells (annexin V⁺/PI⁺) are located in the bottom left, bottom right and top right quadrants, respectively. The numbers in each quadrant represent the percentage of cells. The data are presented as the mean±S.E.M. from at least three independent experiments. (d) Percentages of apoptotic cells in each group. The data are presented as the mean±S.E.M. from at least three independent experiments. **P<0.01