Fig. 1.

The effects of melatonin on LPS-induced cellular death. a The cellular viability was detected via MTT assay. Melatonin had the ability to protect cellular activity. b–d The trypan blue staining was used to observe cellular death under LPS treatment in the presence or absence of melatonin. Melatonin could reduce the number of trypan blue positive cells when compared to LPS treatment. c–e TUNEL assay was conducted to observe cell death with melatonin treatment. *P < 0.05 vs Ctrl group, ^# P < 0.05 vs LPS group. LPS: lipopolysaccharide (10 μg/ml for 12 h treatment); Ctrl: control group