Research Paper Volume 1, Issue 4 pp 425—437

Figure 4. NAC treatment partially corrects the metabolic defect observed in Atg7 ^-/- MEFs. (A) Western blot analysis of wild type (+/+) or Atg7^-/- MEFs for the expression of Atg7, p62 and actin (loading control) cultured in the presence or absence on the antioxidant NAC (500 μM) for ten days. (B) Primary wild-type and Atg7^-/- MEFs that were cultured in the absence or presence of 500 μM NAC for 10 days prior to cellular respiration measurement. Shown is a representative tracing of oxygen consumption performed in triplicate under basal conditions, following the addition of oligomycin (0.5 μM), the pharmacological uncoupler FCCP (1 μM) or the Complex III inhibitor antimycin A (0.25 μM). (C) Averaged metabolic profile from 4 separate experiments employing 3 independent primary isolates of WT and Atg7^-/- MEFs. Shown is the fold change +/- SEM in oxygen consumption (WT MEF basal respiration =1) for WT MEFs and for Atg7^-/- MEFs that were cultured in the absence or presence of 500 μM NAC for 10 days prior to metabolic assessment.* p≤0.05; ** p≤0.01; NS= not significant.