Fig. 1

Lipoic acid induces apoptosis in IGROV1 and IGROV1-R10 ovarian carcinoma cell lines. IGROV1 (left panel) and IGROV1-R10 (right panel) were treated to a continuous exposure to 0.1; 0.5 and 1 mM of lipoic acid (LA) and effects of this treatment were analyzed after 48 h and 72 h. a: Cell Viability was expressed as number of viable cells determined by the trypan blue exclusion method. Graphics were realized and are presented as means ± standard errors of the means (SEM) of three independent experiments using GraphPad Prism5 software. b and d: Morphological features of the cells observed by photon microscopy (upper line of each panel) and nuclear features of the cells after DAPI staining (middle line of each panel) were then studied, Bars: 20 μm. DNA content histograms obtained by flow cytometry (lower line of each panel) after a 48 h treatment (b) or a 72 h treatment (d). For each condition, the percentage in sub-G1 and G0-G1 phases is indicated. c and e: Protein expression levels of PARP (native and cleaved forms), caspases-3 (pro and cleaved forms) were assessed in control or LA-treated (0.5 or 1 mM) cells at 48 h (c) and 72 h (e) by western blot using a specific anti-PARP and anti-caspase-3 antibody. Expression of actin was measured as a loading control. Western blots shown are from one experiment representative of at least three independent experiments and cell lysates