Figure 3.

Apoptotic effects promoted by litchi fruit extracts in HT29 cells. (a) Morphological effects induced by litchi extracts in HT29 cells. The pictures were acquired after cell treatment with 150 µg/mL GAE litchi extracts at the indicated times by a Leica light microscope (200× magnification). (b) Detection of HT29 cell death. After 48 h of treatment, cells were incubated with an isotonic propidium iodide (PI) solution for 1 h and analyzed by flow cytometry using the Expo 32 software. The histograms indicate the percentage of PI-positive cells that reveal membrane permeabilization accounting for cell death. p value < 0.001. (c) Western blot analysis of apoptotic proteins evaluated after 16 h and 48 h of treatment. The correct protein loading was ascertained by immunoblotting for γ-tubulin. Representative blots of three independent experiments and densitometric analysis are shown. (*) p < 0.05; (**) p < 0.01; (***) p < 0.001; n.s. not significant.