Fig. 6

Down-regulating miR-18a promotes hypoxia-induced H9c2 cell autophagy and inhibits hypoxia-induced cellular senescence through suppressing the Akt/mTOR axis. a Protein expression of autophagy-related markers (Beclin1, LC3-II/I and p62) in H9c2 cells determined by western blot analysis; b the number of autophagosomes in H9c2 cells after exposure to hypoxia identified by GFP-LC3 (×400); c the H9c2 cell senescence after exposure to hypoxia identified by SA-β-gal staining (×200). The data were measurement data and expressed as mean ± standard error. Comparison was conducted by one-way analysis of variance among multiple groups. Each experiment was repeated 3 times; *p < 0.05 vs. the NC group; ^#p < 0.05 vs. the miR-18a inhibitor group