The modulation of autophagy attenuates intestinal ischemia /reperfusion injury in a rat model of short bowel syndrome

Fig.1. Effects of MBR and intestinal I/R injury on the expressions of autophagy-related proteins at different post-operative times. The intestinal issues were collected at four different post-operative times (8, 16, 24 and 72 hours after surgery). (A-C) Representative western blot demonstrating autophagy-related proteins including LC3-II/I, Atg5 and Beclin-1 expressions in both the group of MBR with and without intestinal I/R injury. All results are expressed as the means ± S.E.M., n=3 per group, *P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 versus Sham; # P < 0.05, ## P < 0.01 versus MBR. Fig.2. Effects of the modulation of autophagy on intestinal damages caused by intestinal I/R injury at post-operative 16 hours. The modulation of autophagy and the evaluation of intestinal damages were explored at post-operative 16 hours. (A-B) Representative western blot demonstrating LC3-II/I expression after the induction and inhibition of autophagy in both groups. (C-D) Representative immunohistochemistry demonstrating Beclin-1 expression after induction of autophagy in the group of MBR and inhibition of autophagy in the group of MBR and intestinal I/R injury. (E-F) The intestinal damages in each group were determined using H&E staining based on the Chiu’s Score. All results are expressed as the means ± S.E.M., n=3 per group, *P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 versus Sham; # P < 0.05, ## P < 0.01 versus MBR; && P < 0.01 versus I/R+MBR. Fig.3. Effects of the modulation of autophagy on the expressions of the Akt/mTOR signaling-related proteins. (A-B) The correlations between the modulation of autophagy and the expression levels of the Akt/mTOR signaling-related proteins in each group were analyzed by Western blotting. (C-D) Representative immunohistochemistry demonstrating mTOR expression after induction of autophagy in the group of massive bowel resection (MBR) and inhibition of autophagy in the group of MBR and intestinal I/R injury. *P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 versus Sham; ## P < 0.01 versus MBR; & P < 0.05, && P < 0.01 versus I/R+MBR.