Ginsenosides Rg1 from Panax ginseng: A Potential Therapy for Acute Liver Failure Patients?

Figure 2

Caspase-3 and caspase-8 expression. Representative photographs of immunohistochemical staining of (a) caspase-3 and (e) caspase-8 as well as Western blots of (c) caspase-3 and (g) caspase-8 protein expression. Immunohistochemical staining showed that (b) caspase-3 levels and (f) caspase-8 expression levels were significantly increased in the ALF group as compared to the CON group (). The immunohistochemical staining data graphed in (b) and (f) are not directly representative of the fields in (a) and (e); in order to make the graphs more statistically robust, (b) and (f) display the average optical density (OD) values for each experimental group derived from sampling 10 independent fields-of-view for each experimental group. Western blotting also showed that that (d) caspase-3 and (h) caspase-8 expression levels were significantly increased in the ALF group as compared to the CON group (). The graph in (d) represents the OD of the caspase-3 17 kD fragment’s band, and the graph in (h) represents the OD of the caspase-8 18 kD fragment’s band. By both immunohistochemistry and Western blotting, this upregulation of caspase-3 and caspase-8 expression was partially reversed by G-Rg1 treatment (). Note: normal cells also display procaspase-3 and procaspase-8 expression as well as activated caspase-3 and caspase-8 expression, so there were small amounts of these bands in the control group.

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