Fig 4. Cathepsin B/L genetic depletion in MEF cells causes accumulation of cholesterol and lysosomal proteins.

(A) Confocal microscopy of CtsB KO, CtsL KO and CtsB/L double KO MEFs. Cholesterol (filipin staining, white) and NPC1 (green). (B) Western blot analysis of CtsB KO, CtsL KO and CtsB/L double KO MEFs using LC3, LAMP1 and NPC1 antibody. α-Tubulin was used as a loading control. (C) Quantification of Western blot results of the 3 independent experiments was performed by ImageJ. Student t-test was used for statistical analysis. Error bars present the mean ± standard deviation (** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).