Figure 7.

CoQ₀-induced ROS involved in induction of SKOV-3 apoptosis, but not autophagy. (A–G) Cells were pretreated with NAC (2 mM) for 1 h, and then incubated with CoQ₀ (30 µM) for 24 h. (A) Induction of apoptosis (DNA fragmentation) was determined by TUNEL assay in the presence or absence of NAC. The green florescence indicates TUNEL-positive cells in microscopic fields (200 × magnification). (B) The fold of apoptotic cells was calculated by measuring the florescence intensity using commercially available software. (C) Annexin-V-FITC and PI staining was used to identify the early/late apoptosis or necrosis of SKOV-3 cells. (D) Cleavage of PARP was monitored by Western blot. (E) Changes in protein intensities were quantified using commercially available software. (F) Formation of AVOs was visualized under a red filter fluorescence microscope (100 × magnification) using AO stain. (G) Number of AO stained cells with CoQ₀ or NAC was presented as histogram, control being as 1.0 fold. Results expressed as mean ± SD of three independent assays (n = 3). Significant at **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 compared with untreated control, and significant at ^## p < 0.01; ^### p < 0.001 compared with CoQ₀ alone treated cells.