Figure 7

Cdot‐induced ROS activate mTOR signaling and increase the expression of downstream glutamine metabolism‐related genes. A) UM intracellular glutamine content increased in a Cdot‐concentration‐dependent manner after removal of Cdots and 24 h of additional culture. B) Addition of the antioxidants NAC and Toc reversed the Cdot‐induced upregulation of intracellular glutamine concentration. C) Western blots showing that pAkt, pmTOR, pS6K, and p4EBP protein levels increased in a Cdot‐concentration‐dependent manner after removal of Cdots and 24 h of additional culture. Total Akt, total mTOR, total S6K, total 4EBP, and β‐actin were used as internal references. D) The expression levels of glutamine metabolism‐related genes increased when Mum2B cells were exposed to Cdots at 50 and 100 µg mL⁻¹ and when 92.1 cells were exposed to Cdots at 25 and 50 µg mL⁻¹. The data represent averages from three independent experiments and are normalized to 18S. The asterisks indicate a statistically significant difference between the control and treatment groups. n = 3, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.