Figure 1.

Ligustilide-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis and inhibited cell migration in oral cancer cells. (A) TW2.6 cells were pretreated with the pan-caspase inhibitor Q-VD-OPh (10 μM) for 30 min and incubated with ligustilide for another 24 h of hypoxia at 37°C. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay and images were captured and presented in 200 times magnification. Data in the plot are expressed as mean ± SEM (n ≥ 3). (B) Ligustilide attenuated cell migration in hypoxic TW2.6 cells. Cells were plated in 12-well plates overnight as a monolayer. A 200-μl tip was used to scratch a gap in the middle of the monolayers. Cells were washed with PBS and incubated with fresh serum-free medium with or without ligustilide and incubated at 37°C of hypoxia for 16 h. Cell migration was measured. Images are presented in 100 times magnification. Data in the plot were expressed as mean ± SEM (n ≥ 3). (C) Ligustilide reduced phospho-stat3 dose-dependently. TW2.6 cells were treated with ligustilide in different doses and harvested at 6 and 24 h of hypoxia. Protein was analyzed by Western blot. **P-valve < 0.01; ***P-valve < 0.001.