Fig. 5

Effect of BPJ, atosiban, nifedipine, BPJ plus atosiban and BPJ plus nifedipine on myometrium cell viability. (a) Cell viability assays were performed in the presence of BPJ (2.5–10.0 μg/mL), atosiban (0.3–1.1 μg/mL) and nifedipine (3.0–12.0 ng/mL), as well as of BPJ plus atosiban and BPJ plus nifedipine (same concentrations as with single treatments) using hTERT-C3 and PHM1–41 human myometrium cell lines. Cells were incubated with the test substances for 24 h. Triton X-100 (1%) and ethyl methanesulfonate (30 mM) were used as positive controls. Data is presented as mean ± SEM of 4 independent experiments (n = 4), each carried out in quadruplicate; *p < 0.05. (b) Staining of nuclei (blue) and actin (red) from hTERT-C3 cells untreated (i.e. control) or upon treatment with BPJ (10.0 μg/mL), BPJ plus atosiban (10.0 μg/mL and 1.1 μg/mL, respectively), and BPJ plus nifedipine (10.0 μg/mL and 12.0 ng/mL, respectively). The images are representative of four independent cultures