Hemin

Curcumin (>95% pure) was procured from TCI chemicals, Japan. Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS, pH 7.2), Tris–HCl buffer (pH 7.6) were prepared in-house while Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium, DABCO and propidium iodide from Life technologies, Invitrogen were used. Flat-bottom polystyrene 96-well tissue culture plates and 8-well chambered slides were procured from SPL biosciences, Korea. Penicillin, streptomycin and gentamicin were from SRL laboratories, India while iodonitrotetrazolium chloride, Hanks balanced salt solution (HBSS), heparin, sodium bicarbonate, dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO), benzoyl-l-arginine-4-methylcoumaryl-7-amide, t-butyl-oxycarbonyl-l-valyl-l-leucyl-l-lysine-4-methylcoumaryl-7-amide, N_α-p-tosyl-l-lysine chloromethyl ketone hydrochloride, and methylthiazoltetrazolium salt were from Sigma-Aldrich, USA. Trisodium citrate, calcium chloride (CaCl₂), sodium chloride (NaCl), crystal violet (CV), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and acetone were procured from Merck, USA while paraformaldehyde, brain heart infusion (BHI) broth, Colombia blood agar, yeast extract, hemin, menadione, cysteine, and fetal bovine serum were procured from HiMedia laboratories, Mumbai.