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. 2012 Nov 9;7(11):e48801. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048801

Figure 4. AMPK activation in AMPD2-deficient cells.

Figure 4

A) Silencing AMPD2 expression in human hepatocytes spontaneously up-regulates the activation of AMPK. Transduction of HepG2 cells with lentiviral particles codifying for a specific silencer for AMPD2 results in significantly lower levels of AMPD activity. This is paralleled with increaseded levels Thr172 pAMPK expression as well as of their target genes ECH1 and Ser79 pACC. Up-regulation of ECH1 is accompanied with higher intracellular β-hydroxybutyrate levels. *p<0.05 B) Blockade of AMPK expression activates AMPD2. Stable silencing of AMPK is associated with significant down-regulation of ECH1 and phosphorylation of ACC at Ser79. In contrast, no change in AMPD2 expression is observed. C) Silencing AMPK expression in human hepatocytes spontaneously decreases the levels of intracellular β-hydroxybutyrate D) Metformin blocks AMPD activation in AMPK-deficient cells in a dose-dependent manner. *p<0.05, **p<0.01.