Figure 1.

Hypoxia induces autophagy in cardiomyocytes. (A-C) The cardiomyocytes were transfected with a plasmid that expressed a GFP-LC3 fusion protein. After 24 h, the cells were incubated for another 24 h at 37°C in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium with (A) dimethylsulfoxide (1:10,000 dilution) (control), (B) 100 nM rapamycin or (C) under hypoxia (1% O₂). Following fixation, the cells were immediately visualized using fluorescence microscopy. (D) The number of punctate GFP-LC3 dots in each cell was counted, and ≥100 cells were included for each group. The data were normally distributed and were statistically analyzed using the Student's t-test. **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 vs. control. Experiments were independently performed in triplicate. GFP, green fluorescent protein; LC3, microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3; rapa, rapamycin.