FIGURE 9.

Rapamycin increases autophagy induction. A, representative Western blots of proteins extracted from the brains of treated and untreated 3xTg-AD mice. B and C, densitometric analysis of the blots (normalized to β-actin) indicates that rapamycin significantly increased the steady-state levels of Atg7 and the Atg5·Atg12 complex. D and E, although rapamycin did not change the levels of LC3I, it significantly increased the steady-state levels of LC3II. F and G, confocal microscopy analysis of sections from 3xTg-AD-treated mice shows that both Tau and Aβ co-localize with the lysosomal protein Lamp2A. Proteins and brain sections used for the data presented here were obtained from 8 different 3xTg-AD mice on rapamycin and 8 different 3xTg-AD mice on the control diet. Data are presented as mean ± S.E. Protein levels are expressed as arbitrary units. * indicates p < 0.01; ** indicates p < 0.05.