PLC inhibition also suppresses BIRD-2-triggered apoptosis in other DLBCL cell lines. a, b, c Quantitative analysis of at least 3 independent experiments detecting apoptosis in Annexin V-FITC/7-AAD-stained SU-DHL-6 (a), Karpas 422 (b), and RI-1 (c) cells treated with U73122, U73343, BIRD-2 (blue), venetoclax (green) or a combination of U73122/U73343 with BIRD-2/venetoclax. For the conditions without Bcl-2 inhibitor (indicated with a ‘-’), the green bars indicate the use of the vehicle control for venetoclax, while the blue bars indicate the use of vehicle control for BIRD-2 treatment. A ‘+’ indicates that the Bcl-2 inhibitor (BIRD-2/venetoclax) was added in this condition. SU-DHL-6 and Karpas 422 cells were treated with 15 µM BIRD-2, whereas 26 µM BIRD-2 was used to treat the RI-1 cells. SU-DHL-6 cells were treated with 500 nM venetoclax, Karpas 422 cells with 1 µM venetoclax and RI-1 cells were treated with 10 nM venetoclax. Cell death was measured 24 h after treatment. On the y-axis the percentage of living cells, which corresponds to the Annexin V-FITC- and 7-AAD-negative fraction, is shown. Data are expressed as the average ± SEM (N ≥ 3). d CI derived from cells treated with U73122/U73343 in combination with BIRD-2/venetoclax. The CI was calculated from the data shown in a, b, c. e, f, g Quantitative analysis of 4 independent experiments detecting apoptosis in Annexin V-FITC/7-AAD-stained SU-DHL-6 (e), Karpas 422 (f), and RI-1 (g) cells. Apoptotic cell death was measured as the percentage of Annexin V-FITC-positive cells. Cells were pre-treated with U73122 (1 or 2.5 µM) or U73343 (2.5 µM) for 30 min. Cell death was measured 24 h after BIRD-2 treatment. Data are shown as the ∆ apoptotic fraction, which is the difference in apoptosis between the BIRD-2-treated and the vehicle-treated fraction, and between the BIRD-2 + U73122-treated and the U73122-treated fraction, and finally between the BIRD-2 + U73343-treated and the U73343-treated fraction. Statistically significant differences were determined using an analysis of variance (ANOVA, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001)