Fig. 1

Effect of Caffeic acid (CA) treatment on HepG2 cells experiencing tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP)-induced oxidative cytotoxicity. a Cells were seeded at a density of 5 × 10⁴ cells/well in a 24-well plate. Viability of cells treated with 20 μM of CA for 24 h or not treated with this compound, before having been treated with various concentrations of t-BHP for 2 h. b Reactive oxygen species (Hsieh, #32) generation by cell cultures as a percentage of the generation of the control mixture. HepG2 cells were seeded at a density of 1 × 10⁴ cells/well in a 96-well plate. After seeding, cell were preincubated with 100 μM of dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCFH-DA) for 30 min at 37 °C. They were then exposed to either 0 or 0.3 mM concentrations of t-BHP and to various concentration of CA (0–20 μM). ROS generation values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 3). Different letters indicate signification differences at p < 0.05 by Tukey’s studentized range tests