Fig. 7

Caspase activity is reduced in DU145/FAM3B cells. a Representative images from western blotting analysis with specific antibodies for caspase-3 (upper image) and caspase-9 (middle image) normalized by β-actin expression (bottom image) in cells treated with 2 ng/mL TNF-α + CHX at time indicated. Arrows indicate the active form of caspase-3 and -9 which is related to level of caspase proteolytic activity. b Caspase proteolytic activity measured by enzymatic assays with synthetic substrates for caspase −3 (upper bar graph), caspase-9 (middle graph bar) and caspase-8 (bottom graph bar). Y-axis shows relative fluorescence units (RFU) at each time point as indicated. Data shown are mean ± SD of three independent experiments. The differences were measured by two-way ANOVA test (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.001; *** < p 0.0001)