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. 2017 Feb 14;7:41927. doi: 10.1038/srep41927

Figure 3. AhR-knockdown increased autophagy in A549 cells.

Figure 3

A549 cells were transfected with AhR shRNA (provided by RNAicore) using lentivirus infection for 72 h. Cellular proteins were then isolated for western blottin and autophagy-related proteins were analysed. (a) Western blots showed that AhR knockdown increased the protein expression of BNIP3, ATG12-5, and LC3II/LC3I ratio but decreased p62 expression. (b) BafA1 (5 nM) treatment of wild-type and AhR knockdown cells for comparison of autophagy flux. Quantification of western blot data showing the fold-change in BNIP3, p62, ATG12-5, LC3, and ATG7 expression. Both BNIP3 and p62 were decreased, whereas ATG12-5 and LC3 were enhanced by AhR knockdown in A549 cells. Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. S15. The quantified data were analysed and expressed as the mean ± SD from three independent experiments. **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 compared to the control group. ###P < 0.001 indicate a statistical difference between shAhR groups.