Fig. 2.

Caspase-3 activity in GDVII-infected astrocyte cultures. Astrocytes were mock-infected (0), or infected at m.o.i.s of 1, 10, or 100 for 24 h. Cells infected at an m.o.i. of 10 were simultaneously treated with the irreversible pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK at a final concentration of 50 μM (Z-VAD). Cell extracts were tested for caspase-3 activity according to assay conditions of the CaspACE kit. Each enzymatic reaction contained 50 μg of total protein of cell extracts. A positive control was obtained by treating cultures with 200 nM Staurosporine (+). Error bars indicated SD of three independent experiments. *, indicated significant differences calculated by Student’s test, P < 0.05.