Fig. 5.

a Scatter diagram of apoptosis analysis by Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. b Analysis of percent apoptosis rates. The rate of apoptosis in the 100 μg/ml BBR group was 52.45%, followed by the 50 μg/ml BBR group (35.37%) and the 25 μg/ml BBR group (25.18%), which were higher than those of the CM (3.61%) or DMSO group (3.46%) (P < 0.05). A 0.5 mg/ml concentration of VX-702, a p38 MAPK inhibitor, significantly decreased the rate of apoptosis (3.04%) compared to the BBR group (P < 0.05). c Detection of apoptosis-associated proteins Bax, Bcl-2, p38 MAPK and p-p38 MAPK through western blotting. d The histograms of expression for Bax, Bcl-2, p38 MAPK and p-p38 MAPK. The 50 and 100 μg/ml concentrations of BBR significantly increased the expression of Bax and decreased the expression of Bcl-2 compared to the CM, DMSO or VX-702 groups (P < 0.05). Although only 100 μg/ml BBR upregulates the expression of p38 MAPK, p-p38 MAPK expression is increased by BBR in a dose-dependent manner compared to the CM, DMSO or VX-702 groups (P < 0.05). The error bar represents the SD (n = 3). *P < 0.05 versus CM group; **P < 0.05 versus VX-702 group