Fig. 1

Cardamonin exhibits anti-cancer activity and induces cell apoptosis in vitro. a Quantification of inhibitory activity of cardamonin on cell viability in different cancer cell lines. The cell viability was determined by CCK-8 assays, after treatment with cardamonin (20 μM) for 48 h. b Cell viability of MDA-MB-231 cells was determined by CCK-8 assays after 24, 48 and 72 h of cardamonin treatment. c Cardamonin (20 and 40 μM) induced chromatin condensation and nuclear shrinkage or fragmentation in MDA-MB-231 cells after 24 h treatment; the nuclear structure was stained with Hoechst 33258. d Protein expression of apoptosis-related proteins in MDA-MB-231 cells treated with cardamonin (20 μM) for 1, 6, 12 and 24 h analyzed by Western blotting assay. Data are shown as mean ± SD; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001, compared with control group. n ≥ 3