Skip to main content
. 2019 Feb 19;17(4):3842–3850. doi: 10.3892/ol.2019.10052

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Luteolin induces apoptosis of breast cancer cells. (A) MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with 10 and 30 µM luteolin for 24 or 48 h and were then analyzed by Annexin V/PI staining and flow cytometry (left). Quantitative data revealed that treatment with 30 µM luteolin for 24 h induced significant apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells. A dose-dependent increase in the number of apoptotic cells after 48 h treatment with luteolin was observed compared with control cells (right). (B) A TUNEL assay was performed to validate the apoptosis of breast cancer cells following treatment with various concentrations of luteolin for 48 h (magnification, ×200). (C) Western blot analysis revealed that the expression levels of apoptotic proteins, including Bax and caspase-3, were upregulated in MDA-MB-231 cells following treatment with luteolin for 48 h as compared with the control. *P<0.05 vs. the control group (0 µM luteolin); #P<0.05 vs. the 10 µM luteolin group. Bax, Bcl-2-associated X protein; BCL-2, B-cell lymphoma 2; PI, propidium iodide; TUNEL, terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling.