Fig. 4. Activation of AMPK/mTOR signaling is essential for autophagy induction and caspase-1 repression in CD44s deficient cells.

a Immunoblot analysis revealed that AMPK/mTOR signaling activated by CD44s knockdown was responsible for autophagy induction and caspase-1 repression. b Caspase-1 activity analyses were performed in four groups and results suggested that AMPK siRNA treatment rescued impaired capase-1 capacity through suppressing autophagy in siCD44 cells. c Representative images of IHC staining CD44s, caspase-1, autophagy markers (LC3B and P62), and p-AMPK in of HCC samples, and the same sections were marked by red arrows which referred to high or low expression, correspondingly. d IHC results were quantified and analyzed. Scale bars, 100 µm. Data are means ± SEM from 3 independent experiments, * means p < 0.05, ** means p < 0.01, *** means p < 0.001 by unpaired student t test.