Figure 8

Loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ _m ) was involved in DHA-triggered apoptosis. a The dynamics of the loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential were monitored by the potential-sensitive dye Rho123 under confocal microscope in DHA-treated ASTC-a-1 cells for 48 h. Scale Bar: 10 μm. b Individual traces of two typical cells treated with DHA. c Mean trace of five cells calculated from single cell kinetics by setting the time of onset of the decrease of fluorescence intensity to zero. d The precentage of cells with rodamine 123 fluorescence were 94%, 74%, 62.1% and 28.9% at 0, 12, 24 and 48 h after 20 μg/ml DHA treatment, respectively, implying that DHA induced a time-dependent loss of ΔΨ_m.