Fig. 1
From: Critical illness-induced bone loss is related to deficient autophagy and histone hypomethylation
Deficient autophagy in critically ill patient PBMCs. (a) Undifferentiated PBMCs from critically ill patients displayed decreased levels of Atg5 and increased levels of p62 protein, suggesting autophagy was already deficient in these cells. In PBMCs grown for 14 days in culture, protein levels of both Atg5 and LC3–II were decreased, in combination with an accumulation in p62. (b) At the level of gene expression, markers of mature osteoclast differentiation (TRAF6, CD16B, NFATc1) were significantly increased in osteoclasts from critically ill patients compared to healthy controls (1.6-fold, 17.5–fold, and 1.9–fold, respectively; p < 0.05). Expression of autophagy markers SQSTM1, the gene encoding p62, and Atg3 were not significantly different between cell populations, however, Atg7 was significantly decreased by 3.5–fold in patient cells compared to healthy controls (p < 0.01) (n = 3; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01)