Fig. 3

Cholesterol induces autophagy in TDSCs. a, b Cells were transfected with the mRFP-GFP-LC3 vector for 24 h and then treated with cholesterol (10 mg/dL) for 24 h. Representative images of fluorescent LC3 puncta are shown. The mean number of yellow puncta representing autophagosomes and the mean number of red puncta representing autolysosomes are plotted. Bar, 50 μm. c, d Cells were incubated with cholesterol (10 mg/dL) for different times. The autophagy-related proteins LC3-II and p62 were analyzed by western blotting. All quantitative data are expressed as the means ± SEM of the results from three independent experiments. *p < 0.05 versus control. CHO, cholesterol