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. 2014 Nov 20;9(11):e113520. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113520

Figure 5. Inhibition of trehalose-induced autophagy abolished its cytoprotective effects in preventing podocyte apoptosis.

Figure 5

CQ (25 µM) or WT (0.2 µM) was used to inhibit podocyte autophagy which was induced by trehalose (50 mM) or trehalose (50 mM) + PAN (30 µg/ml) for 48 h. (A–C) CQ and WT inhibited trehalose-induced autophagy. The expression of LC3-II drastically increased in Tre+CQ and PAN+ Tre+CQ groups, while it decreased significantly in Tre+WT and PAN+ Tre+WT groups. p62 slightly decreased in PAN+ Tre group, whereas it significantly increased in Tre+CQ and Tre+WT groups. The immunoblot images were shown along with statistical data. *p<0.05, **p<0.01 versus Tre group, n = 7. (D) Necrosis increased after the inhibition of trehalose-induced autophagy. The LDH in culture medium was measured. *p<0.05, **p<0.01 versus PAN+Tre group, n = 6. (E) Podocyte apoptosis increased after the inhibition of trehalose-induced autophagy. The percentage of apoptotic podocytes was much higher in PAN+Tre+CQ and PAN+Tre+WT groups than the PAN+ Tre group. *p<0.05, **p<0.01 versus PAN+ Tre group, n = 7. (F) The percentage of active caspase-3 positive podocytes increased after inhibition of trehalose-induced autophagy. The changes in the percentage of active caspase-3 positive podocytes were similar to the data in (E). *p<0.05, **p<0.01 versus PAN+ Tre group, n = 8.