Fig. 3

Casticin induces mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in NOZ and SGC996 cells. a, b Flow cytometry analysis of the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm). NOZ and SGC996 cells were treated with casticin (0, 1, 4, 7 µM) and stained with Rhodamine 123. Cells with high ΔΨm are marked “survival”, and those with low ΔΨm are marked “apoptosis”. The percentages of cells with low ΔΨm (apoptosis) are shown. c Apoptosis-related proteins in NOZ and SGC996 cells were analyzed by western blot. GAPDH was used as a loading control. d After pretreatment with 5 mM Z-VAD-FMK for 1 h, GBC cells were incubated with 4 µM casticin for 24 h, and cellular viability was determined. All data are presented as the means ± standard deviations. Significant differences compared with the control were indicated by *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001