Fig. 4

Autophagy stimulation by XAG partially attenuated apoptotic cell death in HCC cells. a Bel 7402 and SMMC 7721 cells were pretreated with or without 10 mM of 3-MA for 6 h, then co-cultured with 20 μM of XAG or vehicle for 48 h. Apoptotic cell ratio was quantified by flow cytometry. b Expression of Bax, Bcl-2, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP in HCC cells was analyzed by Western blotting. GAPDH was used as control group. **p<0.01. c and d Cells were infected with Atg5 targeting siRNA or scramble siRNA, then treated with or without 20 μM of XAG, and TUNEL staining detected cell apoptosis. Western blotting analyzed the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP in HCC cells, and GAPDH was used as control group. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) for three independent experiments. **p<0.01