Figure 3.

Effects of picrocrocin in HepG2 cells. (A) Cell viability assessment of HepG2 cells after treatment for 72 h, with increasing concentrations (1 to 300 µg/mL) of PEF from saffron extract. (B) qPCR analysis of SREBP1 and SREBP2 transcription levels after treatment for 24 h. The relative expression of human SREBP1 and SREBP2 were determined by Sybr green qPCR. The ∆Ct of human PPIA was used as an internal calibrator. These results highlight PEF’s ability to increase mRNA levels of SREBP1 and SREBP2 in HepG2 cells without affecting cell viability. Values represent mean ± SD of three independent experiments. ** p value < 0.01; **** p value < 0.0001; ns: non-significant.