Fig. 5

Paraquat promotes the activation of autophagy in human respiratory epithelial cells. A, B The representative images and statistical histograms of MDC staining with gradient PQ treatment for 4 h; C Western blot analysis of the indicated protein levels in cells treated with indicated concentrations of PQ; β-actin was used as loading control; D The representative images of cells transfected with mCherry-GFP-LC3 after the treatment of vehicle or 500 μM PQ for 4 h; The statistical histograms were shown on the right; DAPI was used for nuclear staining. Scale bar: 20 μm. E Mitochondrial OCR was carried out with a Seahorse analyzer after the treatment of PQ for 2 h. F The OCR values of basal respiratory, spare respiratory capacity, maximal respiration, ATP production were calculated. G Western blot analysis of the subunits of different mitochondrial complexes. ^★P < 0.05, ^★★P < 0.01 versus control group