Fig 2. Overexpression of Atp13a2 protects cells against starvation-induced cell death.

(A-B) HeLa cells or HeLa cells stably expressing V5-tagged Atp13a2 were cultured under normal growth conditions (a and c) or under starvation conditions (b and d) for 16 hours and then stained with the nuclear dye Hoechst 33342. Cell death was quantified by counting cells that had highly condensed/fragmented DNA based on the strong staining with the nuclear dye Hoechst 33342 (A) Representative Hoechst staining of control and starved HeLa cell nuclei. Bar, 100 μm. (B) Quantification of cell death in normal HeLa cells and the Atp13a2-expressing cell line grown under normal and starvation conditions. Graph is an average of three independent experiments and the data shown is the mean ± standard deviation of the mean (SDM). Cells expressing Atp13a2-V5 exhibited significantly lower cell death compared to normal HeLa cells after starvation (**p < 0.005).