Fig. 8: Sex differences in basal autophagy levels and responses to rapamycin are detected in mouse tissues.
a–e, The expression of p62/SQSTM1 in the jejunum (small intestine (SI)), colon (large intestine (LI)), liver, BAT and muscle of female and male mice. a, Rapamycin induced a significant reduction of p62/SQSTM1 protein level in jejunums in females that was not detected in males (n = 5 biological replicates of one mouse per replicate, two-way ANOVA, treatment P < 0.05, sex P = 0.37, interaction P = 0.23, post-hoc test). b, Higher basal level of p62/SQSTM1 in males detected by two-way ANOVA, whereas rapamycin induced similar reductions in p62/SQSTM1 in the two sexes (n = 6 biological replicates of one mouse per replicate, two-way ANOVA, treatment P < 0.05, sex P < 0.05, interaction P = 0.81, post-hoc test). c, Rapamycin markedly reduced p62/SQSTM1 protein level in the liver of both sexes (n = 6 biological replicates of one mouse per replicate, two-way ANOVA, treatment P < 0.001, sex P = 0.87, interaction P = 0.86, post-hoc test). d,e, Rapamycin significantly reduced p62/SQSTM1 protein level in the BAT and muscle of males (n = 6 biological replicates of one mouse per replicate, two-way ANOVA, BAT: treatment P < 0.0001, sex P = 0.08, interaction P = 0.05, post-hoc test; muscle: treatment P < 0.01, sex P = 0.41, interaction P = 0.14, post-hoc test). All mice were sacrificed and tissues were collected at 12 months of age. Data are presented as mean values ± s.e.m.
