Fig. 5

SLC7A11 regulated autophagy, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in retinoblastoma upon arginine restriction. A Immunoblot analyses revealed that SLC7A11 was induced upon arginine deprivation in both Y79 and WERI-Rb-1 cells. B Fluorescence microscopy image showing GFP signals in the cells and immunoblot data showing the efficiency of SLC7A11 knockdown in Rb cells. Scale bar, 300 μm. C Retinoblastoma cell lines (Y79, WERI-Rb-1) were treated with rhArg for 72 h. The data are shown as the means ± SEMs, n = 4–5. Differences were assessed by the Mann‒Whitney test: ns = not significant. D Representative images and colony counts of SLC7A11-knockdown WERI-Rb-1 cells. E Immunoblot analyses showing the changes in autophagy activity (conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II) in Rb cells after arginine deprivation. F Flow cytometric analyses of cell cycle arrest. The bar chart shows the mean ± SEM of the percentage of cells in the cell cycle phase after 72 h of exposure of Rb cells to rhArg (n = 4), and immunoblot analyses revealed changes in the expression of cell cycle-related proteins (cyclin A and cyclin B). G Flow cytometric analyses of cell apoptosis. The bar chart shows the mean ± SEM of the percentage of early apoptotic cells 72 h after arginine deprivation (n = 4)