Fig. 9

BMS-1 and Nano-DOX synergistically promoted apoptosis of lung cancer cells. A, B BMS-1 potentiated Nano-DOX’s action to induce apoptosis of cancer cells (A549 & Lewis) mainly in mixed culture with the TAM models (hM2 & mM2). Apoptosis was indicated by the cell surface presence of annexin v. C BMS-1 potentiated Nano-DOX’s action to induce BAX in the A549 cells mainly in mixed culture with the hM2. D Nano-DOX treatment led to increased immunohistological staining of caspase 3 and BAX in subcutaneous xenografts of Lewis cells in mice. Cell surface annexin v was assayed by FACS analysis of immunofluorescent staining. BAX expression was assayed by confocal microscopy of immunofluorescent staining. FACS histogram geometric means were used to quantify mean fluorescence intensity (MFI). Values were means ± SD (n = 3, *p < 0.05). Drug concentration was 2 μg/mL for DOX and Nano-DOX and 1 μM for BMS-1 in the in vitro experiments and treatment duration was 24 h. Representative FACS zebra plots for A and B were provided in Additional file 1: Figure S9