Fig. 3

Autophagy induces G0/G1 arrest and inhibits proliferation of MenSCs. a, b Cell proliferation with rapamycin at different concentration or time was assessed using MTT assay. Significant differences were detected by one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test, *p < 0.05 and ***p < 0.001, versus DMSO. c, d Flow cytometric analysis and of cell cycle distribution, one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test; ns represents not significant, ***p < 0.001, versus FBS+. e WB was used to detect Cdk2 and Cdk4 expression in MenSCs treated with rapamycin, one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test; ns represents not significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. f Real-time PCR analysis of P21 and P16 mRNA expression in MenSCs treated with rapamycin, one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test; ns represents not significant, ***p < 0.001. g WB was used to detect Cdk2 and Cdk4 expression in MenSCs treated with starvation, one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test; ns represents not significant, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001. h Real-time PCR analysis of P21 and P16 mRNA expression in MenSCs treated with starvation. Statistical analysis is based on one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test; ns represents not significant, **p < 0.01. All data are provided as means ± SEM