Figure 5

Cinnamon extract treatment induces tumor apoptosis by decreasing the levels of NFκB and AP1 and their target genes. (A) Genomic DNA was isolated from tumor tissues from each treatment group and DNA fragmentation was confirmed by staining with ethidium bromide in 2% agarose gel. (B) The protein levels of pro-caspase and active caspases 3 in tumor tissues from each group were determined by immunoblotting. (C) To check the structural changes of nucleus, tumor tissues from each group were sectioned and then stained with Hoechst. Round areas and arrows indicate apoptotic cells (bigger size of this picture was included in Additional file 4, Figure S3). (D) The levels of NFκB and AP1 in tumor tissues from each group were compared by immunoblotting between the treatment groups. The gene expression (E) and protein (F) level of Bcl-2, BcL-xL and survivin in tumor tissues were measured by quantitative real-time PCR or immunoblotting, respectively. Two (**) asterisk indicates p < 0.005. Not significant (NS). Data are representative of three individual experiments with similar results.