Effects of cocaine and/or gp120 exposure on caspase-3 activation in rat primary astrocytes.

(A) Rat primary astrocytes treated with cocaine (10 µM) and/or gp120 IIIB (200 ng/ml) for 24 h were monitored for active caspase-3 by immunostaining using anti-cleaved caspase-3 antibody. Scale bars indicate 20 µm. (B) Rat primary astrocytes were treated with cocaine and/or gp120 for 24 h, followed by cell lysis and detection of anti-cleaved caspase-3 protein on a Western blot. (C) Densitometry scans of the ratio of band intensities of cleaved caspase-3/β-actin from three separate experiments. * p<0.05 versus control group; # p< 0.05 versus cocaine group; ∧p< 0.05 versus gp120 group.