Fig. 3: MELK promotes mitochondrial function in vitro.

After MELK knockdown in Huh7 cells: Cell status was detected by immunofluorescence (A, B); Biomarkers of mitochondria-associated programmed death were detected by WB (C, D). MELK silencing significantly increased the expression of HSP 70 and HSP 90 (E) and the intensity of DCF/ROS (F, G). Changes of JC-1 green monomer and JC-1 red aggregates were detected by fluorescence microscope (H, I left). The JC-1 green monomer intensity was measured by Biotek ELX 800 microplate reader (I right). After MELK knockdown, mitochondrial dynamics were detected by immunofluorescence (J–L); ATP contents and OCR of cells were measured by the Seahorse XFp Flux Analyzer (M–O). Data were shown as mean ± SEM. n.s. represents not significant. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001 as calculated by the one-way or two-way ANOVA. Scale bar:100 µm (A, F, H).