Data on the effect of pro-fibrotic cytokine TGF-β on hepatic stellate cell autophagy.

Our data describe autophagic flux in primary rat hepatic stellate cells (rHSCs) treated with pro-fibrotic growth factor, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β). An autophagy flux experiment determines the rate of synthesis and degradation of the autophagosome marker, LC3-II in the presence and absence of the lysosomal inhibitor bafilomcyin, which blocks LC3-II degradation in lysosomes. The effects of a test agent on LC3-II flux through the autophagic pathway is determined immunochemically by its relative amounts detected in lysates of cells treated with and without bafilomycin. This measurement helps to validate whether exposure to an agent affects the biogenesis or the degradation of autophagosomes during autophagy, a major macromolecular degrading mechanism in eukaryotic cells. ("Rev-erb Agonist and TGF-β Similarly Affect Autophagy but Differentially Regulate Hepatic Stellate Cell Fibrogenic Phenotype" (Thomes et al., in press) [1].