Fig. 3

Determination of apoptosis rate. There were five groups in the experiment: CK, si-NC (siRNA-NC), astaxanthin, si-STAT3 and astaxanthin + si-STAT3. CK was the blank control group. The si-STAT3 and si-NC (siRNA-NC) groups were transfected with siRNA-STAT3 and a blank siRNA-NC plasmid, respectively, for 48 h. Astaxanthin (200 µM) was administered for 24 h following transfection for 48 h. (a) Detection of apoptosis using flow cytometry. (b) Apoptosis rate results. Silencing STAT3 increased the percentage of apoptotic cells. The group treated with astaxanthin combined with si-STAT3 showed the highest apoptosis rate. The data from three experiments were used to calculate mean values (± SD). Quad, quadrant; UL, upper left; UR, upper right; LL, lower left; LR, lower right. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001