Research Article

N-Acetyl-Serotonin Protects HepG2 Cells from Oxidative Stress Injury Induced by Hydrogen Peroxide

Figure 8

NAS prevents the activation of caspase-3. (A) Activities of caspase-3 as assessed by immunocytochemistry ((a)–(c): 400x). HepG2 cells were immunostained with active-caspase-3 antibody and FITC-conjugated secondary antibody and then stained with DAPI. (B) Activities of caspase-3 as assessed by western blot. (a) Untreated group; (b) H2O2 group, HepG2 cells incubated with 200 μM H2O2 for 6 hours; (c) H2O2 + NAS, 10 μM NAS was administered before exposure to H2O2. Note the activities of caspase-3 in the H2O2 group compared with the untreated group ( ) and the decreased activities in the H2O2 + NAS group compared with the H2O2 group ( ). The results are expressed as ratio of cleaved caspase-3 optical density values to those of β-actin, and each value represents the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. The annotation indicates a value < 0.01 versus untreated group. The annotation indicates a value < 0.05 versus H2O2 group.
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