Figure 4.

Pro-apoptotic effect of complex C1 on PANC-1 cells. (A) PANC-1 cells were treated with DMSO as a negative control or various concentrations of complex C1, upon treatment cells were collected and Annexin V-FITC assay was performed. The percentage of cells in each quadrant is presented as the means ± SEM of at least two (0.5 μM C1) or four (1 μM C1, 5 μM C1 and 1 μM dox) independent experiments. Mean values were compared with Student’s t-test, and p values that were evaluated compared to DMSO treatment are presented as * p ≤ 0.05. Each color in the legend corresponds to a bar presented on the histogram. Q1: necrotic cells; Q2: late apoptosis; Q3: living cells; Q4: early apoptosis. (B) Expression of BAX and BCL-2 in PANC-1 cells upon treatment with complex C1 was determined by qRT-PCR. Relative expression of BAX and BCL-2 was calculated as a percentage of expression in treated cells compared to their expression in cells treated with DMSO that was set as one. Results were presented as the means ± SEM of at least three independent experiments. Relative BAX/BCL-2 ratio was calculated in each independent experiment and presented as means ± SEM of at least three experiments. Mean values were compared with Student’s t-test, and p values that were evaluated compared to DMSO treatment are presented as * p ≤ 0.05.