Figure 1.

HB treatment induces apoptosis after H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress.

Notes: (A) LDH release into the medium: H₂O₂ treatment induced cell death as demonstrated by high LDH release starting from 16 h; HB had a protective effect, and LDH release was reduced. The pretreatment with DEVD-CHO did not affect LDH release in H₂O₂-treated cells, indicating that H₂O₂ triggered necrotic cell death. The results are expressed as the percentage of viable cells compared with negative control cells (not treated with HB or H₂O₂) referred to as 100%. (B) Caspase-3 activity: HB treatment activated caspase-3, while H₂O₂ alone did not. Negative control cells are referred as 100%. Data are given as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. Statistical analysis: one-way ANOVA (n = 3). Significantly different from H₂O₂-treated cells (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001).

Abbreviations: HB, hyaluronic acid and butyric acid; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; DEVD-CHO, N-acetyl-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-aldehyde; SEM, standard error of the mean; ANOVA, analysis of variance.