Figure 4

Effect of HF diet and Kupffer cells reduction on autophagy intensity determined as LC3-II expression in the liver. During the autophagosome formation, cytosolic LC3-I protein is lipidated to form LC3-II. LC3-II is incorporated into autophagosome membrane and remains there during the whole autophagy process until the stage of late lysosome. The formation of LC3-II is thus considered to be an indicator of autophagy intensity. The quantification of LC3-I and LC3-II in liver homogenate was performed by immunodetection. Data are expressed as LC3-II/LC3-I ratio. All data are presented together with median. Open symbols = starved animals (S); closed symbols = fed animals (F). ○ ● SD; □ ■ SD + GdCl₃; ♦ ◊ HF;▲ Δ HF + GdCl₃. ^{† †}p < 0.01, ^{† † †}p < 0.001 fed vs starved;^#p < 0.5 SD + GdCl₃ vs SD; *** p < 0.001 HF + GdCl₃ vs HF; ^xxxp < 0.001 HF vs SD.