Figure 7.

Simvastatin treatment alters the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins in the Bcl-2 family and is cell line-specific. Daoy (A,D–F), D283 (B,G–I), and D341 (C,J–L) cells were treated with 10 µM simvastatin and cells were collected every 24 h until 72 h, at which point Western blots for the anti-apoptotic proteins were performed. The anti-apoptotic proteins McL-1 (A–D,G,J), Bcl-xl (A–E,H,K), and Bcl-2 (A–C,F,I,L) were probed. Western blots were done to measure the expression of these anti-apoptotic proteins. GAPDH was used as the loading control. Western blot signals showing the expression of these pro-apoptotic proteins were quantified by ImageJ and Excel. Western blot signals were first normalized to the control at 24 h and these values were then normalized to their own GAPDH, which had also been normalized to its own control at 24 h. The simvastatin treatment values were then compared to their respective time-point control values and presented as a percentage. Data was collected in three independent biological experiments (n = 3) and expressed as means ± SEM. Statistical differences are evaluated by one-way ANOVA, using GraphPad Prism 6.0. p-value is reported as *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, or * p < 0.05. For the continuous full length-image of Western blot signals in Figure 7A–C, please refer to Supplementary Figure S3.