Fig. 1
Effect of palmitic acid (PA) treatment on cell proliferation in HCC cells under hypoxia. A Viability of PA-treated HepG2 and Hep3B cells under normoxia and hypoxia by MTS assays. Cells were treated with PA at 0, 50, 100, and 200 μM concentrations. MTS values were estimated up to 72 hours of culture under normoxia and hypoxia. B, C Relative cell number of PA-treated HepG2 and Hep3B cells and trypan blue exclusion assay. For each cell line, 5.0 × 104 cells were treated with PA at 0, 50, 100, and 200 μM concentrations under normoxia (N) and hypoxia (H) for 48 hours. B Living cell number and C cell death rate are plotted. D Western blot analysis of apoptosis-related protein expression, including cleaved caspase 3 and cleaved PARP, in HepG2 and Hep3B cells that were treated with PA at the indicated concentration under hypoxia for 48 hours. Values are presented as the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of three independent experiments (A, B, C). N.S.: not significant, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 versus control