Cox-2 Inhibition Protects against Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-Induced Cardiomyocyte Apoptosis via Akt-Dependent Enhancement of iNOS Expression

Figure 3

Inhibition of COX-2 activity alleviates H/R-induced cell apoptosis in H9C2 cardiomyocytes. (a) Representative original Western blots of apoptosis related proteins (cleaved caspase-3, total caspase-3, Bcl2, and Bax) in H9C2 cardiomyocytes with or without H/R stimulation in the presence or absence of NS398. Protein presence of cleaved caspase-3 and Bcl2 was normalized to total caspase-3 and Bax, respectively. (b) Representative fluorescence microscopy images of TUNEL staining. White triangle points to positive staining cells (green). DAPI (blue) indicates the nucleus staining. Magnification ×200, scale bars: 100 μm. TUNEL-positive cells% = TUNEL-positive cell numbers/total cell numbers × 100%. Data are shown as means ± SEM; CTL versus H/R or H/R + NS398, H/R versus H/R + NS398 (nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test in (a) and one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test in (b)); per group.