Bee Venom Triggers Autophagy-Induced Apoptosis in Human Lung Cancer Cells via the mTOR Signaling Pathway

Figure 4

Inhibition of autophagy reduces bee venom-induced apoptotic cell death. (a) NCI-H460 cells were treated with 1 μg/ml bee venom for 24 h in the absence or presence of the autophagy inhibitor HCQ. The cell viability of bee venom-treated cells was measured using the MTT assay. The data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. . (b) NCI-H460 cells were treated with 1 μg/ml bee venom for 24 h in the absence or presence of HCQ (5 μM). The indicated protein levels were evaluated by immunoblotting. (c) Representative fluorescence microscopic images showing DAPI (blue) and TUNEL (green) nuclear staining in cells treated with 1 μg/ml bee venom for 24 h in the absence or presence of the autophagy inhibitor HCQ (5 μM). Scale bar, 50 μm. The number of positively stained cells was counted in three different fields and averaged. The data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. . (d) NCI-H460 cells were treated with 1 μg/ml bee venom for 24 h in the absence or presence of the autophagy inhibitor HCQ. The cell population of bee venom-treated cells was measured using FACS analysis. The data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. (e) NCI-H460 cells were treated with 1 μg/ml bee venom for 24 h in the absence or presence of the autophagy inhibitor HCQ. The apoptosis of bee venom-treated cells was measured using FACS analysis. The data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments.

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