Fig. 4

MSCs induce autophagy in CRPC cells. a GFP-tagged LC3 expression vector has been utilized to demonstrate the occurrence of autophagy in PC3 cells and was detected using an inverted fluorescence microscope. b GFP-tagged LC3 expression vector has been utilized to demonstrate the occurrence of autophagy in DU145 cells and was detected using an inverted fluorescence microscope. c Endogenous LC3 expression was detected by western blotting with β-actin as a loading control. The conjugated and unconjugated form of LC3 is referred to as LC3-II and LC3-I, respectively. The protein level of p62 was also analyzed by western blotting. d Representative electron micrographs (original magnification ×3000) clearly exhibited the autophagic vacuoles in the cytoplasm content. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01