Figure 3.

TUNEL assay for EL4 cells treated with free cisplatin and 2 mg/mL of CDDP/PLGA NPs and comparison of the mRNA levels of apoptosis-related genes in the EL4 cells treated with cisplatin (10 μg/mL) and 2 mg/mL of cisplatin-loaded PLGA NPs for 48 hours.

Notes: The green cells indicate the TUNEL-positive apoptotic cells. It can be seen that the number of apoptotic cells increased after 48 hours in the group treated with 2 mg/mL CDDP/PLGA NPs: (A) TUNEL assay; (B) DAPI staining; and (C) merged. Comparison with free cisplatin: (D) TUNEL assay; (E) DAPI staining; and (F) merged. Activated gene expression of (G) Bax and (I) caspase-3. (H) Downregulation of antiapoptotic gene, bcl2. Each value represents mean ± SD, and the experiments were carried out in triplicate. *p ≤ 0.05 as compared with EL4 cells that were treated with 2 mg/mL of cisplatin-loaded PLGA NPs. Bar = 100 μm.

Abbreviations: CDDP, cis-diaminedichloroplatinum; PLGA, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid); NPs, nanoparticles.