Skip to main content
. 2021 Jun 22;43(1):968–979. doi: 10.1080/0886022X.2021.1936040

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Effects of ATF4 knockdown and mTOR inhibitor rapamycin on autophagy and apoptosis in podocytes induced by serum from DN mice. (A) Immunofluorescence analysis of expression and distribution of autophagy markers protein LC3 showed significant downregulation by ATF4 siRNA in MCP-5 podocytes exposed to serum from DN mice, which was reversed by rapamycin treatment; scale indicates 10 μm. (B) Protein expression analysis supported our immunofluorescence data on LC3 downregulation by ATF4 siRNA and rescue by rapamycin. It further showed that rapamycin treatment significantly reduced cleaved caspase-3 expression. (C) Densitometric analysis of protein expression from Figure 3(B). (D) Densitometric analysis of protein expression. (E) Podocyte apoptosis was evaluated by flow cytometry. (F) Quantification of apoptosis rates. siRNA-NC: control siRNA transfected for 48 h; siRNA-ATF4: siRNA-ATF4 transfected for 48 h. RAP, Rapamycin treatment for 24 h. (**p < 0.01, *p < 0.05).