The roles of caspases in apoptosis and necroptosis of TRAIL-treated cells.

<p>(A) MiaPaCa-2 and BxPC-3 cells were cultured with TRAIL (50 ng/mL) for 12 h, and protein expression levels of caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, and caspase-2 were evaluated by immunoblot. α-Tubulin was used as the control. (B) MiaPaCa-2 and BxPC-3 cells were cultured with TRAIL (50 ng/mL) in the presence of a panel of caspase inhibitors (20 μM) for 24 h. After staining with annexin V-FITC/PI, flow cytometric analysis was performed. The numbers represent the proportions of each subset. The percentages of annexin V⁺ cells (C) and annexin V^-/PI⁺ cells (D) were determined by flow cytometry. All data points shown represent the mean of three culture wells. *<i>P</i><0.05, **<i>P</i><0.01. panCi, pan-caspase inhibitor; C9i, caspase-9 inhibitor; C8i, caspase-8 inhibitor; C2i, caspase-2 inhibitor. Vehicle controls received an equal volume of DMSO.