Figure 7

Curcumin was effective against primary CD34⁺ AML cells. (A) Primary CD34⁺ cells isolated from BMMCs or PBMCs of 9 AML patients and 8 healthy donors were isolated and subjected to flow cytometry to determine the purity of CD34⁺ cells. (B) 3 CD34⁺ AML and 3 CD34⁺ normal samples were treated with different concentrations of curcumin (0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 μM) for 24 h. The same CD34⁺ AML samples were also exposed to DNR (0, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.6 μg/ml) for 24 h. MTT assay was performed. The bar represents mean ± SD of three independent experiments. (C) Another set of 3 CD34⁺ AML samples and 3 CD34⁺ normal samples were exposed to different concentrations of curcumin, DNR, and their combination as indicated, for 48 h. MTT assay was performed. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 (compared with either curcumin or DNR alone). (D, E) 4 CD34⁺ AML samples and 3 CD34⁺ normal samples were treated with 0 and 40 μM curcumin for 24 h. Apoptosis was assessed by AnnexinV/PI assay. The graph displays the mean ± SD of four independent experiments (D). A representative figure is shown (E). (F) 3 CD34⁺ AML samples were treated with 0 and 80 μM curcumin for 24 h. Bcl-2 protein levels were determined by Western blotting assay.