Fig. 3

Detection of the autophagy markers: Atg5-12, LC3-II and mTOR in visceral and subcutaneous adipocytes of WOKW and LEW.1W rats, untreated (−) or treated (+) with LY294002 (50 µM). Representative Western blots (a) and corresponding densitometrical analyses (b, c, d) of autophagy-related gene 5-12 (Atg5-12), microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). a–c Increased expression of Atg5-12 and LC3-II (membrane bound) protein in visceral and subcutaneous adipocytes of WOKW rats compared to the LEW.1W control animals. Note the significantly decreased Atg5-12 and LC3 expression after PI3K inhibition with LY294002 (48 h) in visceral adipocytes of both strains. a, d Downregulation of mTOR was detected predominantly in the visceral adipocytes of WOKW rats. The treatment with LY294002 (48 h) resulted in an increase in mTOR expression in visceral adipocytes of both strains. Data from n = 6 are presented as mean ± SEM. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, according to the one-way analysis of variance together with the Newman–Keuls test. GAPDH was used as normalization control