Fig. 5.

IL-17 silencing enhanced renal damages and reduced autophagy-related proteins in high glucose (HG)-treated HK-2 cells. After siScramble and siIL-17 treatment, HK-2 cells were incubated with HG (30 mM) for 24 h. IL-17 deletion was confirmed by Western blot analysis (a). The expression of inflammatory cytokines (p-STAT3, IL-6 and MCP-1) and fibrosis-related proteins (TGF-β1 and Fibronectin) in HG-treated HK-2 cells were determined by western blotting analysis (b) and relative band intensities subjected with β-actin (d). The expression of autophagy-associated protein (ATG7, LC3-2 and ATG3) were determined by western blotting analysis (c) and relative band intensities subjected with β-actin (e). Cell nuclei were visualized by 6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI; blue) and LC3-2 was visualized with Alexa Fluore 594 conjugate (red) at 200× magnification (f). The data are expressed as means ± SEM. ** < 0.01 and *** < 0.001 versus control (c); ## < 0.01 and ### < 0.001 versus siScramble-transfected HG