Figure 5
From: Cocaine induces cell death and activates the transcription nuclear factor kappa-b in pc12 cells
(A) Cocaine (COC) exposure increased α-spectrin (240 kDa) cleavage and (E) increased cleavage of caspase 3 in PC12 cells. Cell lysates were extracted from PBS and cocaine (1 mM, 6 hours) treated PC12 cells. Cell lysate protein content (30 μg) was loaded and run on a SDS-polyacrylamide gel and submitted to Immunoblot assay. The densitometric analysis (% of control) of the 150,120 kDa (cleaved product of spectrin) and caspase-3 cleaved product (17 kDa) band complexes represented in A and D are shown on B, C and F respectably. β-Actin was used as internal control. (D) COC exposure raised caspase-3 activity and expression in PC12 cells. Cells were treated with 1 mM of COC for 6 hours. Cell lysates were analyzed for caspase-3 activity, using the caspase-3 substrate (Ac-DEVD-AMC). Results are expressed as mean + S.E.M. from three individual experiments; * p < 0.05 vs PBS (Student's t-test).