Effect of mechanical stress on the activation of caspases in endplate chondrocytes.

<p>(A) Chondrocytes were pre-treated with or without 20 µM Ac-DEVD-CHO for 1 h and then loaded under 0.5 MPa for 24 h. The expression levels of cleaved Caspase-9 and cleaved Caspase-3 were examined by western blotting. (B) Quantitative analysis of cleaved Caspase-9 and cleaved Caspse-3. The results are expressed as the mean ± SD of three separate experiments. *p<0.05; ***p<0.001 versus control cells, ^###p<0.001 versus loaded cells.