Figure 4

Effect of SiNPs on the autophagy and mTOR pathway of HCECs. (A) The expression levels for the autophagy signal, the LC3A/B proteins, and the levels of mTOR were detected by Western blot analysis in HCECs treated with SiNPs for 24 h. For the LC3A/B, the inactive is I form and the active is II form. For the mTOR, the active form is phosphorylated mTOR (p-mTOR). (B) The relative densitometric analyses of Western blots showed the dose-dependently increased expression of LC3A/B II form with high concentrations of SiNPs (50, 100, and 150 nm) added. (C) The mTOR signal activation did not significantly change with the treatment of SiNPs at a concentration of up to 100 μg/mL. Relative densitometry was calculated as a fold change from the control, and all values (mean ± SEM) were obtained from three independent experiments; each independent experiment was performed in triplicate (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001).