Fig. 3

Effect of autophagy on the process of THP-M derived foam cells formation and progress. a Intracellular lipid content measurement by using oil red staining after incubation with oxLDL for 6 h (upper panel) or 48 h (downside panel) under conditions of autophagy activation (Rapa) or inhibition (3-MA); (b) Quantitative analysis of oil red positive area by using IPP software. The bars represent the mean of three independent experiments. * P < 0.05 vs. control group; (c) Western blot analysis for the regulatory effect of Rapa or 3-MA on autophagy specific molecules; (d) The cell viability was detected by an MTT assay. The results showed that the Rapa treatment improved the viability of mid-late stages foam cells in the 48-h group, but exerted no effect on the foam cells that were cocultured with oxLDL for 6 h; (e) The AV-PI two-color dot plot for cell viability to further test the effect of rapa on mid-late staged foam cells. The values are the means ± SD of 3 separate experiments; *P < 0.05 vs. control group