Sp infection induces increased autophagosome and LC3-II formation and upregulated autophagic degradation.

<p>(A) After 3 h infection, cells were processed and examined by TEM. A1. Untreated cells (–). A2. Cells infected with Sp (st35A). A3. Cells treated with rapamycin. A4. Cells treated with wortmannin and then infected with Sp. A5. The number of autophagic vesicles in each cell was determined with 10 cells in each sample (one-way ANOVA; Tukey’s posthoc test). (B) Sp infection induces LC3-II formation and upregulated autophagic degradation. B1. Western blot of LC3. B2. Western blot of P62. B3. Western blot of P-ULK1. Data are representative of three experiments with similar results. Sp: <i>S</i>. <i>pneumoniae</i>; Rapa: rapamycin; WT: wortmannin; p62: Sequestosome 1; p-ULK1: phosphorylated UNC-51-like kinase 1.