Figure 1.

Berberine (BBR) regulates BNIP3-mediated mitochondrial autophagy to attenuate hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury in H9C2 cells. After transfection with small interfering RNA against BNIP3 (siBNIP3)/negative control siRNA (siNC) or not, H9C2 cells were cocultured with BBR for 3 h (50 μM) or not and then exposed to H/R. (A, B) Western blotting to detect the protein expression of LC3, NIX, and P62; GAPDH was used as a control. (C) After H/R treatment, the same number of H9C2 cells from each group were cultured for 0, 12, 24, or 48 h, and cell proliferation was assessed by measuring the absorbance at 450 nm. (D, E) The ΔΨm of H9C2 cells was assessed by flow cytometry using R123 as a fluorescent probe after H/R, and the bar graph displays the intensity of R132 fluorescence for each group. 1, control group; 2, H/R group; 3, BBR+H/R group; 4, siNC+BBR+H/R group; 5, siBNIP3+BBR+H/R group. The data are the means ± SD (n=3). ^*P < 0.05 compared to the control group; ^#P < 0.05 compared to the H/R group; ^&P < 0.05 compared to the BBR+H/R group.