Figure 1

Effect of autophagy inhibition on mitochondrial vesicle formation. A. ATG7 knockdown by RNAi was confirmed by Western blot hybridization and ATG7 knockdown inhibited autophagy as determined by LC3-II and p62 protein levels. B. Knockdown of ATG7 in LCC9 cells results in accumulation of mitochondria as determined by COXIV protein levels. C. EM micrographs of LCC9 cells treated with control or ATG7 siRNA. Arrows denotes mitochondrial forming vesicles. D. Autophagosomes were counted from EM images of LCC9 cells treated with control or ATG7 siRNA. n = 10; *p > 0.05. E. Mitochondria forming vesicles were counted from EM images of LCC9 cells treated with control or ATG7 siRNA. Data was graphed as % mitochondrial forming vesicles per image. n = 10; *p > 0.05.