Fig. 5. Decrease of pro–caspase-3 in Jurkat cells by thiopental. Jurkat cells (1 × 10⁶/ml) were incubated with increasing concentrations of thiopental (5–500 μg/ml) for 24 h and the decrease of pro–caspase-3 (determined by molecular size) detected in Western blot after electrophoresis. Equal protein, corresponding to 5 × 10⁵cells, of whole cell lysate was separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis on a 10% gel and immunostained with a caspase-3 antibody and respective horseradishperoxydase-labeled secondary antibodies and visualized by enhanced chemiluminescence. One of five separate experiments shown. The amount of pro–caspase-3 protein was quantified by densitometry, and the relative density of bands is given as mean ± SD (%) from the medium-only treated cells value (set at 100%) of the five Western blots.