Fig. 6: Effect of autophagy modulators on day 5 of food restriction.

a Blood glucose levels after injection of chloroquine in young food-restricted (FR) mice (left panel; saline n = 4, chloroquine n = 5), after injection of Tat-Beclin1 D11 autophagy-inducing peptide (Tat-D11) in aged FR mice (middle panel; saline n = 17, Tat-D11 n = 16), and rapamycin in aged FR mice (right panel; saline n = 11, rapamycin n = 10). *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 by Bonferroni test. b Map of an amino acid metabolic pathway in aged FR mice at 60 min after Tat-D11 injection. Mean ratio of the plasma level of amino acids in Tat-D11-injected mice to that in saline-injected mice was shown in the color scale, where red and blue represented upregulation and downregulation compared to the mean value in saline-injected mice, respectively. Undetected amino acids and key metabolites are denoted with small gray circles. c The plasma concentration of the amino acids. d The gene expression of gluconeogenic-related peptides in the liver. e Blood βHB levels. f Gene expression of ketogenesis-related peptides in the liver 60 min after Tat-D11 injection in aged FR mice. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 Comparison to the saline-injected mice by the Student’s t test; saline (n = 17), Tat-D11 (n = 16). Data are presented as mean ± SEM.