Longitudinal monitoring of p62 and LC3 expression in PBMCs from AD patients.

Representative immunoblots showed the immunoreactivity of p62 (A, C, D and E), LC3 I (B, F, G and H) and LC3 II (B, I, J and K) in PBMCs of AD patients at the Day of inclusion (D0) and after a follow-up at 12 months (M12) and 24 months (M24). PBMCs were isolated from blood and cultured either with 1 μM C16 or its vehicle (0.8% DMSO) for 48hr as described in method section. Semi-quantitative analysis of immunoblot was performed using Gene Tools software (Syngene, Ozyme France). The immunoreactivity of protein was normalized to β-actin immunoreactivity. The line on the graphs represents the mean of 34, 27 and 23 patients for p62, mean of 21, 17 and 14 patients for LC3 I and mean of 21, 17 and 13 patients for LC3 II at D0, M12 and M24, respectively. Some signals were not analyzed on the blot due to a very low or absent signal. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.005 compared to respective vehicle-treated PBMCs by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. Friedman test was not significant for these three autophagic markers.