Co-treatment of cells with DEX and HQH enhances BAX and cleaved-caspase-3 expression and reduces Bcl-2 and pERK expression. Cells were cultured with 100 μmol/L DEX alone or DEX combined with 4.3 mg/mL HQH for Jurkat cells and 1.5 mg/mL HQH for Nalm-6 cells for 24 hours. We used western blotting to detect protein expression levels of BAX, cleaved-caspase-3, Bcl-2, t-ERK and pERK in Jurkat (A, C) and Nalm-6 (B, D) cells. 100 nmol/L DEX and the same dose of HQH as above were used to treat ALL cells for 24 hours, and western blotting was used to detect protein expression levels of BAX, cleaved-caspase-3, Bcl-2, t-ERK and pERK in Jurkat (E) and Nalm-6 (F) cells. The loading control was β-actin. DEX – dexamethasone; HQH – Huai Qi Huang; pERK – phospho-ERK; t-ERK – total ERK.