Autophagy Protects Advanced Glycation End Product-Induced Apoptosis and Expression of MMP-3 and MMP-13 in Rat Chondrocytes

Figure 3

Autophagy against AGE-induced apoptosis in chondrocytes. (a) Apoptosis in chondrocytes was measured by Annexin V/PI double-staining assay after treatment with 100 μg/mL AGEs for 0, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. (b) Statistical analysis of flow cytometry results for apoptotic percentage of chondrocytes treated with AGEs. (c) Annexin V/PI double-staining assay for the apoptotic proportion of chondrocytes after pretreatment with 3-MA (5 mM) or RA (5 μM) for 1 h, followed by 100 μg/mL AGEs for 6 h. (d) The effect of autophagy on AGE-induced apoptotic rate. All results are the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. and versus the control group. and versus AGE-treated cells.

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