Figure 3.

3-HT induces apoptosis in A2780/CP70 and OVCAR-3 cells. (A) Hoechst 33342 staining was conducted in the experiment. A2780/CP70 and OVCAR-3 cells were treated with 3-HT for 24 h, stained with Hoechst 33342, and then detected by fluorescent microscopy (magnification, ×400). (B) Flow cytometric analysis of A2780/CP70 cells and (C) OVCAR-3 cells. Cell were treated with 3-HT for 24 h, then stained with Annexin V-FITC and PI solution and analyzed with flow cytometry. (D and E) Apoptosis data were expressed as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments; ^*P<0.05. (F and G) Mitochondrial membrane potential changes of A2780/CP70 and OVCAR-3 cells were determined using JC-1. Cells were treated with 3-HT for 24 h and stained with JC-1, the fluorescence intensity of red to green was measured by fluorescence microplate reader. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments; ^***P<0.001. (H) Protein expression levels of procaspase-3, cleaved caspase-3 and PARP1 were analysed by western blotting. A2780/CP70 and OVCAR-3 cells were treated with 3-HT for 24 h, the cell lysates were then prepared for western blot analysis. GAPDH was used as internal control.