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To investigate whether nitric oxide (NO) induces apoptosis in myoblast cells, the effect of the sodium nitroprusside (SNP), NO donor, on the apoptosis of mouse C2C12 myoblast cells was examined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, flow cytometry, 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, DNA fragmentation assay, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blot analysis, and caspase-3 enzyme assay. Mouse C2C12 myoblast cells treated with SNP exhibited several apoptotic features. SNP increased p53 expression and bax expression. SNP also enhanced caspase-3 enzyme activity. The data show that NO may induce apoptotic cell death in myoblast cells through the activation of p53-, bax-, and caspase-dependent intracellular death-related pathways.
