Fig. 3.

Combination of sorafenib and CuB synergistically induces caspase‐dependent apoptosis in HCC cells. (A, B) HepG2 and Huh7 cells were treated with 2000 nm sorafenib and/or 25 nm CuB for 48 h, An annexin V‐FITC/PI staining assay with flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptotic rates. (C, D) The expression levels of cleaved caspase 3 and cleaved caspase 9 were detected by western blotting after treatment for 48 h. GAPDH was used as a loading control. Data are presented as the mean ± SD from three independent experiments. Differences between two groups were analyzed using Student’s t‐test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001 vs. the corresponding group.