Fig. 3

High dose of silicate exposure blocked the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes. a, b Western blot was performed to characterize the expression of LC3 and SQSTM1/p62 in BMSCs pretreated with Baf A1 (100 nM) and CQ (20 uM) for 2 h before exposure to 1.5 mM of silicate for 24 h (n = 4). The data indicated no significant difference after Baf A1 and CQ co-treatment. c mRFP-GFP-LC3 expression demonstrated that autophagosomes were largely accumulated in BMSCs after exposure to 1.5 mM silicate (yellow puncta), and the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes was blocked. (**p < 0.01, ns: no significance)