Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 18 pp 7961—7977

Figure 5. Nrf2 protects against apoptosis and senescence under oxidative stress in NPCs. (A, B) Transfection efficiency of lentivirus for Nrf2 overexpression was detected by western blotting. (C) The Annexin V-APC/PI staining analyzed by flow cytometry showed that Nrf2 overexpression reduced the apoptosis rate in TBHP-treated NPCs, which was increased by Nrf2 knockdown. (D) The representative images of SA-β-gal staining of NPCs as treated above and quantification of positive cells; scale bar: 200 μm. (E, F) The western blotting and quantitative protein levels of p16 and C-caspase3 in the NPCs of each treatment group described above. (G) The western blotting and quantitative protein levels of Nrf2 in each human NP tissue group (n = 12, 3 for each grade). (H) Immunohistochemical staining showed that the numbers of Nrf2-positive cells were decreased with IDD; scale bar: 100 μm. All data are expressed as mean ± SD of at least three independent experiments.