7-AAD

The impact of a potential autophagy (LC3a/b) deregulation in hyper and in hypo stages during sepsis-induced kidney injury and the temporal profile of phosphorylated extracellular signal-related kinase, P38 (pP38), Akt (pAKT), and 13-3-3β protein were investigated in the current study, using a rat cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model, by means of flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. Cell viability was assessed by protein C zymogen concentrate (PC), 7-aminoactinomycin D (7-AAD) staining and inflammation by S100 protein immunostaining. The impact of reduced kidney inflammation in autophagy was assessed by PC administration, an anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective substance. Sepsis induction increased LC3a/b expression, which presented two peaks at 6 and 36 h after CLP, both in the percentage of positive cells (P = 0.024, P = 0.025, respectively) and in fluorescence intensity. At 6 h when inflammation was already apparent, LC3a/b increase was escorted by phosphorylated extracellular signal-related kinase stimulation and high cell viability (65%), designating autophagy as a cytoprotective mechanism against microbial infection.

INTRODUCTION: In cellular viability assays the sole determination of a single parameter might not give precise information on the extent of toxicity. In our study we worked out a multiparametric microplate assay based on bioluminescent ATP quantification, esterase activity-related fluorescence, nucleic acid staining and total intracellular protein measurement from the same sample in MDCK and HepG2 tissue cultures.

Formamide has long been one of the most widely used reagents in the study of nucleic acids. However, the use of formamide for treating cells to be analyzed by flow cytometry is a recent development and is restricted to measuring telomere lengths by flow-FISH. In this field, we have published several papers in order to observe the effects of formamide treatment on cells at room temperature. We therefore discovered that, with suitable modifications, a short and simple incubation in this ionizing solvent facilitates cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry, equivalent or superior to that obtained with treatments in alcohol, acetone or detergent in hypotonic solution. Even using a bulky and problematic stain (low quantum efficiency and G-C base preference), such as 7-aminoactinomycin D (7-AAD) which, on the other hand, has the advantage of being excited at 488 nm and does not bind to the RNA, it is possible to obtain excellent coefficients of variation and (G2-M) mode/(G0-G1) mode ratios.

Objective To investigate the effect of lentivirus-mediated shRNA silencing of angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) on the proliferation and apoptosis of cervical cancer SiHa cells. Methods The ANGPTL4 lentiviral vectors were used to transfect SiHa cells. Real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting were respectively used to detect ANGPTL4 expression at mRNA and protein levels. The proliferation ability of SiHa cells after transfection was assessed by MTT assay and colony formation assay. The cell cycle was examined by flow cytometry. The annexin V-phycoerythrin/7-aminoactinomycin D (annexin V-PE/7-AAD) staining combined with flow cytometry was used to examine the effect of ANGPTL4 silence on the apoptosis of SiHa cells. Results After the ANGPTL4 lentiviral vectors were transfected into SiHa cells, qRT-PCR and Western blotting showed that the expression of ANGPTL4 mRNA and protein were significantly inhibited in LV3-ANGPTL4 group.