Fig. 4

Pathogenesis of SiNP-induced HTR8 cell apoptosis. The HTR8 cells were exposed to SiNP at 25, 50, 100, 200 µg/mL for 24 hours, and the cells exposed to SiNP-free medium were used as controls. a Expression of Caspase-3, ACOT1, SCD1, and CPT1A detected by Western blot in the HTR8 cells. b–e Quantitative analysis of Caspase-3, ACOT1, SCD1, and CPT1A by normalizing to GAPDH, where the expression of Caspase-3, ACOT1 and CPT1A was negatively correlated with SiNP, but SCD1 showed positive correlationship. f Immunofluorescence images showing the apoptotic and necrotic HTR8 cells induced by SiNP exposure (×10 magnification). The apoptotic HTR8 cells were stained in green with Annexin V-FITC, and the necrotic HTR8 cells were stained in red with propidium iodide. g Quantitative analysis of the apoptotic and necrotic HTR8 cells in different groups. h Schematic illustration of the pathogenesis of SiNP-induced HTR8 cell apoptosis. The differences between different treatment groups were compared using one-way ANOVA followed by SNK post-hoc test. *P < 0.05