MTT Assay
          The three cell lines responded differently to the different concentrations of meloxicam. Normal breast epithelial cells did not get killed by the increasing doses of meloxicam, and instead, managed to grow. This shows that inhibiting COX-2 in normal mammary cells does not affect their viability or ability to propagate. This is important because it establishes that meloxicam is not toxic or harmful to normal body cells at levels that can kill cancerous cells. Such factors are important to take into consideration especially when it comes to determining potential applications for COX-2 inhibitors in fighting cancer.
 
          The HTB-129 cell line was killed by all tested concentrations of meloxicam in a dose dependent manner. Nearly 50% of the HTB-129 cells were killed at a concentration of 0.54µM after 48 hours. The HTB-132 cell line was also killed by meloxicam, however, not in the same way as the HTB-129 cell line. The HTB-132 cell line managed to grow in size at concentrations of 0.18 µM, however, started to die at higher concentrations, 0.36µM and 0.54 µM. These differences show that different tissues respond differently to COX-2 inhibition.
 
Apoptosis Assay
          The apoptosis assay had shown that apoptosis had indeed been the process that caused the cells to die, instead of necrosis or contamination with pathogenic bodies. The strong presence of the dye in cells in both the HTB-129 and HTB-132 cell lines show that the cells' membranes were no longer asymmetric due to the activities of the enzyme scramblase, showing these cells had undergone apoptosis. This is further confirmed by the western blot performed for bcl-2.
 
Bcl-2 Western Blot
          The western blot for bcl-2 expression helped show that the inhibition of COX-2 resulted in lower upregulation of bcl-2 expression. Because bcl-2 expression went down, it's anti-apoptotic effects were not as strong, allowing the cancerous cell lines to undergo apoptosis. There is a correlation between bcl-2 expression and the cell death that occurred in the three cell lines.
 
          The 184-A1 cell lines produced no bands in the blot for bcl-2, showing that bcl-2 is not expressed in these cells. Therefore, it is not surprising that the 184-A1 cell line's viability was not affected by inhibition of COX-2. The HTB-129 cell line on the other hand, experienced the greatest cell death. At the same time, this cell line had the highest bcl-2 expression among all three cell lines. It is no wonder that HTB-129 also experienced the greatest cell death among all three cell lines after bcl-2 upregulation was suppressed by the meloxicam. The HTB-132 cell line also had high bcl-2 expression, however, not as much as in HTB-129 cells. The HTB-132 cell line did not experience as much cell death as the HTB-129 cell line, due to the fact that there is not as much bcl-2 expressed in this cell line.