Survival of cytoplasts.

Freshly prepared cytoplasts as well as cytoplasts cultured overnight without additions, with 500 ng/mL G-CSF or 400 μmol/L zVAD-fmk were stained with annexin-V and were analyzed by FASCscan. Cytoplasts without annexin-V staining were counted as viable cytoplasts (lower left quadrant on each plot). Survival was expressed as the percentage of viable cytoplasts in the total cytoplast population. (A) Almost all fresh cytoplasts were alive. (B) Untreated cytoplasts cultured overnight underwent spontaneous apoptosis. (C) Addition of G-CSF had no effect on cytoplast survival. (D) zVAD-fmk significantly increased cytoplast survival (*P < .05 versus untreated and G-CSF–treated cytoplasts). Values represent means ± SEM of 3 separate experiments.