Thioredoxin Binding Protein-2 Regulates Autophagy of Human Lens Epithelial Cells under Oxidative Stress via Inhibition of Akt Phosphorylation

Figure 4

Overexpression of TBP-2 promoted cell injury and autophagy in LECs under oxidative stress. (a-b) Lentiviral-based TBP-2-overexpressing showed a nearly 10-fold increase of TBP-2 level. Fluorescent microscopy showed a high transfection efficiency. Scale bar, 200 nm. (c) After treatment with H₂O₂ (50 μM) for 12 hours, the LECs overexpressing TBP-2 (TBP-2) showed a higher level of LC3-II and p62 than the ones transfected with empty vector (vector). (d) Overexpression of TBP-2 worsened cell viability under oxidative stress. (e) Twenty-four hours after transfection with mCherry-LC3 plasmid, cells were then cultured with normal medium (control) or 50 μM H₂O₂ (H₂O₂) for 24 hours. mCherry-LC3 puncta assay revealed a larger average number of mCherry dots per cell in TBP-2-overexpressing LECs under oxidative stress. Scale bar, 25 nm. Data were presented as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. , .

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