Figure 1

CI plots of DAC and anti-leukemia drugs combined effect in human myeloid leukemia cell line U937. The effect of the combinations was assessed by MTT after 3 day’s culture with drugs. Cells were divided into three groups. The first column, cells treated with DAC and anti-leukemia drugs simultaneously at the first day. The second column: DAC was added at the first day, anti-leukemia drugs at the third day. The thirst column: DAC was added at the first and second day, and anti-leukemia drugs at the third day. The effects of combinations were estimated using the CalcuSyn software, which was developed based on the median-effect method. CI < 0.8 indicates synergy; CI = 0.8 to 1.2 is additive; and CI > 1.2 means antagonism. The result showed that DAC sequentially combined with IDA had most notable synergistic effect among the five anti-leukemia drugs simultaneously or sequentially combining with DAC, and sequential combination with twice DAC given were more effective than the once DAC given when DAC combined with IDA.