Fig. 5: Increased cellular protein S-glutathionylation sensitizes hepatocytes to TNFα hepatotoxicity.

a Diamide, a protein S-glutathionylation induction agent, increased intracellular protein-GSSG adduct formation. HepG2 cells were incubated with exogenous diamide (0.1 and 0.2 mM) for 2 h. Whole-cell lysates were collected and used for the detection of the intracellular GSSG levels by western blot analysis. b Diamide pretreatment sensitized hepatocytes to TNFα-induced cell death. HepG2 cells were pretreated with diamide (0.1 and 0.2 mM) for 2 h before TNFα (40 ng/mL) addition. Cell death was measured by the LDH assay 16 h later. All values are expressed as the mean ± SD from three or more independent studies. Bars with different characters differ significantly (p < 0.05)