Microvessel counts were performed at ×400 (×40 objective lens and ×10 ocular lens; 0.74 mm2 per field). Tumors with <200 microvessels/mm−2 were assigned a low microvessel density, whereas those with >200 microvessels/mm−2 were assigned a high microvessel density (Couvelard et al., 2005). One-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s and Tukey’s Multiple Comparison MI-773 solubility dmso Tests were performed to determine the significance of differences between control and all treatment groups and among groups
respectively using GraphPad PRISM version 5.0. Differences were considered significant in all experiments at p < 0.05 (*, significantly different from untreated controls; **, significantly different from C-DIM-5 and C-DIM-8 and doc single treatments unless otherwise stated). C-DIM-5 and C-DIM-8 were significantly cytotoxic (p < 0.05) to A549 cells with 24 h IC50 values of 14.29 ± 2.30 μM and 16.18 ± 1.59 μM respectively ( Fig. 1A and B). The broad spectrum of cytotoxic activities of the C-DIM compounds was also evident in LnCap, PC3, and H460 cell lines ( Fig. 1C and D). Interaction of C-DIM-5 and C-DIM-8 with doc inhibited A549 cell growth exponentially with
CI values of 0.46 ± 0.027 and 0.51 ± 0.031 (i.e. synergistic) respectively. Deposition on stages 3, 4, 5 and 6 were selected, representative of the respirable mass and used in the assessment of cytotoxicity ( Fig. 1E and F). Cell survival on stage 5 of the viable impactor significantly decreased to 17.75% and 17.10% (p < 0.05) after treatment with nebulized C-DIM-5 and C-DIM-8 respectively. Representative fluorescence micrographs 5-Fluoracil in vitro of acridine orange-ethidium bromide-stained cells revealed the percentages of cells undergoing apoptosis (Fig. 2A). This was after treatment with DMSO, doc (10 nM), C-DIM-5 (10 μM),
C-DIM-5 (10 μM) + doc (5 nM), C-DIM-8 (10 μM), C-DIM-8 (10 μM) + doc (5 nM), C-DIM-5 (20 μM), C-DIM-5 (20 μM) + doc (5 nM), C-DIM-8 (20 μM), and C-DIM-8 (20 μM) + doc (5 nM) ( Fig. 2A). There was evidence of induction of early and late apoptosis by doc (10 nM) [11.5 ± 1.00%], old C-DIM-5 (10 μM) [20.5 ± 1.85%], and C-DIM-8 (10 μM) [26 ± 1.05%] ( Fig. 2B). This was augmented when C-DIM-5 and C-DIM-8 where combined with doc [C-DIM-5 (10 μM) + doc (5 nM), 30 ± 2.90%; C-DIM-8 (10 μM) + doc (5 nM), 34 ± 3.60%] ( Fig. 2B). The number of apoptotic cells significantly increased (p < 0.05) at higher concentrations (20 μM) of C-DIM-5 [24 ± 1.80%] and C-DIM-8 [25.5 ± 2.40%]. This was further enhanced when 20 μM C-DIM-5 and C-DIM-8 were co-treated with 5 nM doc [40 ± 3.45%, and 41 ± 3.60% respectively] ( Fig. 2B). Treatment of A549 cells with DMSO resulted in accumulation of 72.34 ± 0.51% of cells in G1, 3.20 ± 0.13% in G2 and 24.58 ± 0.49% of cells in S-phase (Fig. 2C). However, after treatment with 10 μM C-DIM-5, 76.98 ± 0.51% of cells accumulated in G1, 1.20 ± 0.21% in G2 and 21.82 ± 0.52% in S-phase.