Figure 6

Effects of co-expression IL-18 and GM-CSF vaccine on cell apoptosis and proliferationin vivo.(A) Tumor tissues were stained with PCNA. The number of cancer cell nuclei that were strongly PCNA positive was counted as a ratio of immunoreactive-positive cells to the total number of cells counted (original magnification, ×200, * P < 0.05, **P < 0.01). (B) Tumor tissues were stained with caspase-3. Caspase3-labeling index was estimated as the percentage of neoplastic cells with positive nuclear staining of the total number of neoplastic cells counted (original magnification, ×200, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01). (C) Induction of apoptosis was indicated by TUNEL assay. The TUNEL-positive cells display dark green nuclei and are observed under a fluorescence microscope, and the percentage of apoptotic cells was determined as described in the Methods (original magnification, ×200, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01). Columns, mean; bars, s.d.