Fig. 5: Inhibition of monocyte activation by recombinant sTim-3 via autophagy induction.

Autophagy levels in CD14⁺ monocytes from ACLF (n = 5), CHB (n = 4), and HC (n = 5) were detected by flow cytometry for LC3 II. The isolated healthy CD14⁺ monocytes were treated with 10 ng/ml recombinant sTim-3 for 6 h. The autophagy levels were detected by immunofluorescence or western blots for LC3. For the autophagy flux detection, the monocytes were co-treated with 10 ng/ml recombinant sTim-3 and 100 nM Baf A1 and were detected by flow cytometry for LC3 II. a Autophagy levels of CD14⁺ monocytes from three groups of study subjects. b Representative immunofluorescence of Tim-3 and LC3 for autophagy induction of healthy CD14⁺ monocytes. Scale bar = 10 μm. c Western blots indicating LC3 II/I ratio in healthy CD14⁺ monocytes. d Detection of autophagy flux in healthy CD14⁺ monocytes. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01; NS, not statistically significant.