Fig. 1.

Starvation upregulates autophagy in HCC cells. (a) The expression levels of LC3 I and LC3 II in HepG2 cells and SMMC-7721 cells cultured with control, EBSS or EBSS + 3MA for 6 h. (b, c) Immunofluorescence showed significantly increased of LC3 protein accumulation in starved HepG2 cells and SMMC-7721 cells cultured with control, EBSS or EBSS + 3MA for 6 h. (d) transmission electron microscopy showed autophagosomes in the starved HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells cultured with control, EBSS or EBSS + 3MA for 6 h. Data are shown as the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments