BAX and breast carcinoma: To verify the results of the apoptosis analysis, western blot analysis was performed to determine the expression of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax and the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast cancer cells, as the induction of apoptosis is linked to the upregulation of Bax and to the down-regulation of Bcl-2 [28,29].