Figure 3.

Effects of NAC pretreatment on PGE2- and EP agonist-induced cell death detected by MTT reduction assay. Differentiated NSC-34 cells were exposed to various concentrations of NAC for 4 h and then treated with vehicle (0.15% DMSO), 80 μM PGE2, 40 μM butaprost (an EP2 agonist), or 40 μM sulprostone (an EP1/3 agonist) for 48 h. The viability of the cells was assessed by the MTT reduction assay. Results are expressed as percentages relative to the control (nontreated) cells. Values represent means ± S.E.M. for four separate experiments. ^∗∗∗p < 0.001, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗p < 0.05.