Fig. 3
H2O2-induced apoptosis involves caspase activity that is blocked by caspase inhibitor. HK1 and NP69 cells were left untreated or pre-treated with 50 µM of Z-DEVD-FMK (Caspase-3 Inhibitor II) for 1 h. HK1 cells were then either untreated or treated with 50, 100 and 500 µM of H2O2 for 8 h, whereas NP69 cells were either untreated or treated with 100, 200 and 300 µM of H2O2 for 16 h. Activity of caspase-3/7 was measured by using Caspase-Glo 3/7 Assay in (a) HK1 and (b) NP69 cells. Means and SD of two independent experiments performed in duplicate are shown. Data are expressed as fold change normalized to untreated control. Asterisks indicates significant increase in H2O2-treated cells as compared with untreated control, open diamond indicates significant decrease in CI-pretreated cells as compared with its corresponding sample without pretreatment of CI (P < 0.05, Student’s t test)