Fig. 2

Role of autophagy in the exocytosis of PSiNPs. a LC3-I and LC3-II expression in Bel7402 cells treated with 200 μg mL⁻¹ PSiNPs for different time intervals by western blot. The number underneath each group in the immunoblotting indicates the relative ratio of LC3-II to LC3-I of the corresponding group. b Confocal fluorescence microscopic images of EGFP-LC3-transfected Bel7402 cells after treatment with 200 μg mL⁻¹ PSiNPs for different time intervals. Scale bar: 20 μm. c Relative amount of the exocytosed PSiNPs in Bel7402 cells after treatment with 200 μg mL⁻¹ PSiNPs for 6 h, followed by washing with PBS and then incubating in fresh medium with or without 5 mM of 3-MA, 200 nM of rapamycin or 30 μM of CBZ for another 16 h by ICP-OES. d Relative amount of the exocytosed PSiNPs in wild type and Atg7^−/− MEF cells after treatment with 200 µg mL⁻¹ PSiNPs for 6 h, followed by washing with PBS and then incubating in fresh medium for 16 h by ICP-OES. Data were represented as mean ± SD (n = 3). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (one-way ANOVA with Fisher’s LSD test for c and unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test for d). Source data are provided as a Source Data file