Figure 3.

Icariin suppressed autophagy by inhibiting AMPK activation. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were incubated in adipocyte DM in the presence or absence of 5 μM icariin. (A) The expression of autophagy related proteins and the activation of the AMPK/mTOR pathway were analyzed by western blotting. (B–F) The levels of phosphorylated mTOR (B) and AMPK (C) (normalized to the levels of mTOR and AMPK, respectively), and the expression of Beclin-1 (E), p62 (D), and LC3 (F) were determined by densitometric scanning and graphed. Data represent the mean ± SD. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.001 (n = 5).