Fig. 7

Artemisinin protected ARPE19 cell cultures from amiodarone-induced cell death via AMPK activation. (a) ARPE19 cell cultures were treated with or without amiodarone (2.5 ∼ 10 µM) for 24 h. Cell viability was determined by the MTT assay (n = 3). (b) ARPE19 cell cultures were pretreated with or without artemisinin (5 ∼ 20 µM) for 1 h and then incubated with 5 µM amiodarone for another 24 h. Cell viability was measured by the MTT assay (n = 3). (c-d) ARPE19 cell cultures were pretreated with or without 20 µM artemisinin for 1 h and then incubated with 5 µM amiodarone for another 24 h. The protein expression levels of PARP, cleaved PARP, and the control GAPDH were detected by western blotting, and protein bands were quantified by Image J (n = 3). (e) ARPE19 cell cultures were treated with or without 1 µM Compound C for 10 min, followed by 20 µM artemisinin for 1 h and 5 µM amiodarone for 24 h. Cell viability was determined by the MTT assay (n = 3). (f-i) ARPE19 cell cultures were incubated with artemisinin (0 ∼ 20 µM) for 1 h. The p-AMPK, CaMKK2, Nrf2, and GAPDH protein levels were detected by western blotting, and protein bands were quantified by Image J (n = 3)