Figure 4.
Effects of peptide V3 on the apoptosis of human HCC cells. (A) The apoptotic levels of SMMC-7721 and Huh-7 cells were measured by TUNEL staining; original magnification 100×. (B) The percentage of TUNEL-positive cells was calculated using the formula: Apoptotic index = (TUNEL-positive cells)/(total number of cells) ×100% 21. (C) Western blotting analysis for the expression of cleaved caspase-3, -8, -9, and cleaved PARP in SMMC-7721 and Huh-7 cells. GAPDH was used as the loading control. (D, E) The densitometry analysis of each factor was performed in SMMC-7721 and Huh-7 cells, normalized to the corresponding GAPDH level. Data are presented as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 compared with the control group; △△P < 0.01 compared with V1 group; ▲▲P < 0.01 compared with V2 group; #P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01 compared with V1+V2 group.