HCQ reduces apoptosis and total cell death in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes in simulated I/R injury.

Cells were pre-treated overnight with 2000 ng/mL HCQ. The following day cells were exposed to simulated I/R injury (4h hypoxia + 16h (A) or 2h (B) reoxygenation) in the presence of HCQ and the percentage of apoptotic cells (A + B) and total cell death (C) was assessed using TUNEL (A), western blotting (B) and cell viability assay (C). Graphs show ±SEM of quantitative analysis from nine (A), four (B) and three (C) independent experiments. Statistical analysis determined by 1 way ANOVA using post-hoc Tukey to compare all columns (* p<0.05, ** p<0.005, *** p<0.0005) (A and B) and unpaired t-test (p = 0.0213) (C).