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Fig. 1 | Journal of Biomedical Science

Fig. 1

From: Investigating the potential of Shikonin as a novel hypertrophic scar treatment

Fig. 1

Effects of SHI on cell proliferation and apoptosis. a Cell proliferation. Kc and HSF were co-cultured and treated with SHI (0.5, 1 and 3 μg/mL) for 72 h. Cell proliferation was measured using the CyQUANT assay. The data were expressed as the average percentage of the untreated control (0 μg/mL SHI) containing DMEM medium alone for 72 h and were pooled from the average data from five replicate experiments (with cells from 5 different patients) in which each treatment was tested independently in triplicate. Error bars indicate mean +/− SEM (n = 5). *p < 0.05 versus the untreated control. Statistical analysis was performed using One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc test. b Representative images showing apoptosis induced by SHI treatment in Kc and HSF respectively using TUNEL assay. Kc and HSF were treated with SHI for 72 h at the concentrations indicated, and then stained with TUNEL reagent to detect apoptotic cells and DAPI to detect the nuclei of all cells. Cells were viewed and images were captured using a Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U system. Green indicates DNA fragments from apoptotic cells, whereas blue localises the nuclei of both live and apoptotic cells. Representative images from cells obtained from three patients are depicted. Scale bar: 0.2 mm. c Apoptotic rate (%) in Kc and HSF induced by SHI. Three randomly selected images were recorded and the numbers of green-staining apoptotic cells and blue nuclei for all cells were counted. The final data was the average cell number of nine different images from three different patients. Apoptotic rate = number of green cells / (number of green cells + number of blue cells). Error bars indicate SEM

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