Effect of celecoxib (CLX) and sorafenib (SOR) individually and in combination on apoptosis and cell proliferation.

<p>(A) Detection of apoptosis by TUNEL assay. Photomicrographs of HepG2 cells treated for 24 h with the indicated concentrations of CLX and SOR either alone or in combination. Apoptotic cells were visualized by TUNEL staining as described in the Materials and Methods section. (B) Quantitative analysis of TUNEL-positive HepG2 and Huh7 cells. Data are expressed as the means ± SD of two separate experiments. *<i>p</i><0.05, versus each agent alone. (C) Cell proliferation was assessed by BrdU assay. Cells were treated for 48 h with the indicated concentrations of CLX and SOR either alone or in combination. Data are expressed as the percentage of the control cells and are the means ± SD of three separate experiments. *<i>p</i><0.05; **<i>p</i><0.01 versus each agent alone.