Figure 2.

Histones exhibit a dose dependent cytotoxic effect on isolated rat cardiomyocytes in vitro, which can be reversed by the addition of mCBS. (A) Primary adult rat cardiomyocytes were incubated for 1 h with pure histones in the presence of 0, 25, or 100 μg/mL mCBS. The percentage of cell death was determined by PI staining. N = 4 independent biological experiments. Analysed by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparison. ****P < 0.0001 vs. control group. ††P < 0.01 ††††P < 0.0001 vs. 40 μg/mL histones alone. (B) LDH release was used to assay cell death in primary cardiomyocytes treated with the drugs at concentrations indicated. N = 5 independent biological experiments. Analysis by one-way ANOVA and Tukey post-test. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ***P < 0.0001.