Figure 4.

β-Carotene induces LPS-induced apoptosis and autophagy via activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in IEC-6 cells. Cells were pretreated with LPS (100 μM) for 3 h following incubation with β-carotene (10 μM) with or without voxtalisib (5 μM) for 24 h. (a) Cell viability measured by the CCK-8 assay. (b), (c) Apoptosis quantified by flow cytometry. (d), (e) The protein expressions of LC3II/I and p62 observed by Western blot. (f), (g) Western blot analysis for the expression of p-PI3K, PI3K, p-AKT, AKT, mTOR, and p-mTOR.  ^∗ ∗P < 0.01 vs. the LPS group. ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 vs. the LPS + βC group.