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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Flow Cytometric Analysis of Apoptotic Biomarkers in Actinomycin D-Treated SiHa Cervical Cancer Cells
Published on: August 26, 2021
Actinonin induces apoptosis in U937 leukemia cells
Mirjana Grujic1, Tina Zavasnik-Bergant, Gunnar Pejler
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. mirjana.grujic@bmc.uu.se
Abstract:
We have previously shown that actinonin causes inhibition of cellular proliferation in U937 leukemia cells. In this report we demonstrate that the inhibition of cell growth by actinonin occurs through the induction of apoptosis. Signs of apoptosis at high actinonin concentration included DNA fragmentation, exposure of phosphatidylserine and condensation of cell nuclei. Apoptosis caused by actinonin was inhibited by Z-VAD-FMK, a broad specificity inhibitor of caspases, implicating the caspase pathway of apoptosis. Further, apoptosis was associated with a large increase in intracellular caspase-3 and -7 activities.
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