Figure 1.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) prevents gp120-induced apoptotic cell death of cultured astroglial cells. A. Incubation of astroglial cells with gp 120 (0.1,1 and 10 nM) for 24 hours reduced cell viability compared with untreated controls, as assessed by FACS analysis. B. NAC (0.5–5 mM), in pre-treatment of two hours, prevented this effect. Data represent the mean ± S.E.M. of five independent experiments.* P < 0.05 gp 120-treated astrocytes vs control (untreated) cells; § P < 0.05 NAC vs gp 120-treated cells. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA followed by Student-Newman-Keuls test.