Fig. 2

XAG promotes HCC cells death through triggering intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Cells were incubated with 10 and 20 μM of XAG or vehicle for 48 h. a Cells were stained with Annexin V FITC/PI and the apoptotic cell ratio was quantified by flow cytometry. **p<0.01. b Western blotting revealed the effect of XAG on the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins, including cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP, cleaved caspase-8, and cleaved caspase-9. GAPDH was chosen as control group. **p<0.01. c Effect of XAG on mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) was observed and photographed by fluorescence microscopy, after staining with JC-1. d The distribution of cytochrome C and the expression of Bak, Bax/Bcl-2 were analyzed by Western blotting, COX-IV and GAPDH were used as control group as well. Results represent independent experiments in triplicate. **p<0.01