Fig. 3

HXR9 triggers apoptosis in treated cells. The mechanism of cell death was analyzed using a FACS-based Annexin / 7AAD method to assess early and late apoptosis. a Sample dot plots for NCI-H28 cells treated with 18 μM HXR9 for 2 h. Viable cells sort to the lower left hand quadrant (low Annexin / 7AAD staining), whilst cells in early and late apoptosis sort to the lower and upper right hand quadrants, respectively. Necrotic cells are in the upper left hand quadrant. b Apoptosis in NCI-H28 cells either untreated or incubated with 18 μM HXR9 or CXR9 for 2 h. The values are the means of three experiments, error bars show the SEM. Treatment with HXR9 causes a significant increase in apoptosis (*, p < 0.05). c Summary of apoptosis data for all five cell lines. V – viable cells, EA – cells in early apoptosis, LA – cells in late apoptosis, N-necrotic cells. The values are the means of three experiments, error bars show the SEM. ***, p < 0.001; **, p < 0.01 relative to the corresponding values for Met-5a