Figure 11.

NAC pre-treatment abolished curcumin or curcumin/TRAIL combination-induced MAPK dysregulation ACHN cells were pre-treated with control medium (0.05% DMSO), 50 ng/mL TRAIL, 25 µM curcumin or 50 ng/mL TRAIL/25 μM curcumin combination treatment for further 24 h. Whole cell lysates were prepared in RIPA buffer. Equal amounts of protein were separated by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, transferred to nitrocellulose and indirectly probed for p-JNK, JNK p-P38, P38, and p-ERK and ERK using monoclonal antibodies and ECL detection system. To assess the effect of pre-treatment with an antioxidant the ACHN cells were incubated with (bi–iii) or without (ai–iii) 10 mM NAC for 1 h prior to treatment of the cells as previously described. Whole cells lysates were assessed by Western blot indirectly probing for the aforementioned primary antibodies. One-way ANOVA was used to analyse the data.