Fig. 5.

Autophagy blockage induced by HCQ was confirmed and correlated with repressed MMP2 and MMP9 expression. After HCQ (25 uM) treatment for 24 h, WB blotting showed that autophagy was blocked, as indicated by LC3II and P62. In addition, both MMP2 and MMP9 expression was also downregulated after HCQ treatment (A–C). Transmission electron microscopy showed more autophagosomes (blue arrows) and lysosomes (yellow arrows) in the HCQ-treatment groups (D–F). Immunofluorescence assays demonstrated upregulated LC3II expression (yellow dots) in GC cells after MRFP-GFP-LC3 adenovirus transfection (G–I). HCQ hydroxychloroquine, blue arrows: autophagosomes; red arrows, autophagolysosomes; yellow arrows, lysosomes; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.0001