Figure 4. Stimulation of autophagy by rapamycin ameliorated sesamol-induced apoptosis of HepG2 cells.

HepG2 cells were pre-treated with/without 100 nM rapamycin for 30 min, and then treated with 1 mM sesamol for 24 h. (A) The effect of autophagy stimulator rapamycin on sesamol-induced HepG2 cells. Autophagy was detected by MDC staining and apoptosis was examined by AO/EB staining, as described in Materials and Methods section. (B) Representative western blots of expressions of LC3 I, LC3 II, PI3K III, Beclin-1, and PARP after sesamol treatment with/without 100 nM rapamycin pre-treatment. (C) Cells were stained with annexin-V (AV) and propidium iodide (PI) to distinguish between unaffected cells (Annexin V negative, PI negative), and apoptotic cells (Annexin V positive, PI negative by flow cytometry).