Figure 3.

USP8 protects Cx43 from autophagy-mediated degradation. A, immunoblotting of Cx43 and USP8 protein in scramble or shUSP8-infected MEFs in the presence of CHX (50 mg/ml). B, immunoblotting of Cx43 protein in MEFs treated with bortezomib (BTZ) (50 nm), BAF (200 nm), or chloroquine (CQ) (50 μ m) for 6 h in the presence of CHX (50 mg/ml). C, immunoblotting of Cx43 protein in scramble or shUSP8-infected MEFs treated with BAF (200 nm) for indicated times. A–C, quantification of the immunoblots comes from three independent experiments (mean ± S.D.) and shown at the right. D, immunoblotting of Cx43 and USP8 protein in WT and Atg7-null MEFs stably infected with indicated lentivirus expressing scramble or USP8 shRNA.