Fig. 2

Pathway of apoptin induction of hepatocarcinoma cells’ death. The apoptosis of HepG-2 (A, B) and Huh-7 (C, D) cells were detected by Hoechst and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. After the addition of the caspase inhibitor QVD (20 μM) to the cells infected with Ad-apoptin, the inhibition rate of HepG-2 (E) and Huh-7 (F) cells were detected by CCK-8 assay. (G) Detection of cleaved caspase-3 expression in the xenograft tumor tissues by IHC. JC-1 staining assay analyzes of the changes in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of HepG-2 (H, I) and Huh-7 (J, K) cells. (L, M) Western blot analysis of mitochondrial apoptosis pathway-related protein expression. The scale bar equals 100 µm. Data are representative of three independent experiments (n = 3). The unpaired Student’s t-test was used. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. (^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01) when compared with Ad-apoptin