Fig. 5.

Pre-treatment with Ang-(1–7) inhibited tumor growth and induced autophagy in vivo. a NPC-TW01 cells were subcutaneously inoculated into the backs of nu/nu mice (pre-treatment group; top panel). The bottom panel shows the representative tumor sizes in the four groups. b Quantitative analysis of tumor volume in the pre-treatment group. *p < 0.05 vs. the mock group; ^#p < 0.05 vs. the Ang-(1–7) 1 μg/kg group. c Protein levels (class III PI3K, Bcl-2, Beclin-1, LC3-II, and p62) were determined by Western blot analysis. d Quantification of the band intensities for class III PI3K, Beclin-1, LC3-II, Bcl-2, and p62. Results are presented as the mean ± SD of three experiments. *p < 0.05 vs. the mock group; ^#p < 0.05 vs. the pre-Ang-(1–7) (1 μg/kg) group. e Left panel: cell proliferation in mouse tumor tissues evaluated by Ki67 immunofluorescence (green) and DAPI staining (blue, nuclei). Scale bar = 50 μm. Middle panel: cell proliferation evaluated by Ki67 immunohistochemistry. Scale bar = 60 μm. Right panel: cell autophagy in mouse tumor tissues evaluated by LC3-II immunohistochemistry. Scale bar = 30 μm