Figure 3

Autophagy in breast cancer cells treated by PA-MSHA was induced by ER stress via IRE1 pathway. A &B. The expression of LC3 and IRE1-a in MDA-MB-231-shIRE1, MDA-MB-231HM-shIRE1 or cells transfected with shCON vectors treated by PA-MSHA (10 × 10⁸ cells/ml)/PBS for 48 hours (A). The relative expression of LC3-I/LC3-II and IRE1-a of each sample (B). C. Nuclear staining of MDA-MB-231-shIRE1, MDA-MB-231HM-shIRE1 cells and cells transfected with shCON vectors with Hoechst 33258 (original magnification, ×400). Cells were treated with PA-MSHA (10 × 10⁸cells/ml) or PBS for 24 hours before examination. D. The percentage of apoptotic cells in MDA-MB-231-shIRE1, MDA-MB-231HM-shIRE1 cells was measured by flow cytometric analysis with Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. Cells were transfected with shCON vectors or shIRE1 vectors.