Figure 3.

Effect of hinokitiol on caspases activation and cytochrome c release. (A,B) Relative concentration-dependent activation of activated caspase-9 and -3 in A549 cells treated with various concentrations of hinokitil. Caspase-9 (A) was activated in a concentration (1–5 μM) dependent manner, whereas caspase-3 (B) was induced significantly only at 2 and 5 μM. (C) Meanwhile, cytochrome c was released at the higher concentration (5 μM) of hinokitiol treatment. The data represent the means ± SEM of three independent experiments. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001 compared with untreated A549 cells.