Fig. 7. The Sirt3/FoxO3a pathway promoted autophagy by transcriptionally regulating LC3B in TEC.

a The expression of the autophagy-associated proteins Beclin-1, Atg5 and Atg7 and the LC3 II/I ratio were detected by western blot. b The expression of Beclin-1, Atg5 and Atg7 and the LC3 II/I ratio were significantly upregulated by Sirt3 overexpression compared to the non-transfected control. c Immunofluorescence assays indicated LC3B upregulation with Sirt3 overexpression (DAPI: blue, LC3B: red). Scale bar: 60 μm. d Two pairs of lc3b primers were selected. e The LC3B promoter region in renal TEC DNA was inserted into the pGL3-enhancer luciferase reporter vector. f Five pGL3LC3B plasmids with different mutation regions were constructed. g The luciferase activity assay showed that all five mutated regions regulated the transcription of lc3b and that the first region played the most important role in the regulation of lc3b transcription. Data are shown as the means ± S.D.; n = 3 per group