TIMP-4 sensitizes cervical cancer cells to apoptosis.

<p>A, H-Vector and H-TIMP-4 cell lines were incubated with or without TRAIL (20 ng/mL, 7 h). The cells were observed by bright field microscopy. B, Caspase-9 activation and PARP cleavage fragments were examined by western blots of H-Vector and H-TIMP-4 cell protein extracts upon FBS starvation. β-Actin immunoblotting was used as loading control. C, Caspase-8 and caspase-3 cleavage was analyzed by western blot in H-Vector and H-TIMP-4 cells upon TNF-α treatment. Coomassie gel staining was employed as loading control. D, The graph shows viability percentages of CasKi cells grown with FBS 3% for 6 days together with or without hrTIMP-4 (10 nM) (Asterisks indicate significant differences with values of p = 0.0114, un-paired t-test with Welch’s correction).