Fig. 5

Inhibition of PKM2 promotes mitochondrial fusion in BMSCs under HG inflammatory conditions, improving mitochondrial function. (A, B) Changes in mitochondrial morphology after the addition of shikonin, as demonstrated by representative confocal and EM images (scale bar for confocal images: 50 μm; scale bar for EM: 500 nm). Quantitative analysis of mitochondrial length was performed based on confocal images, with 10 images analyzed per group. (C) Expression of mitochondrial fusion genes (MFN2 and OPA1) and fission genes (DRP1 and FIS1) after shikonin treatment. (D) Protein levels of mitochondrial fusion genes (MFN2 and OPA1) and fission genes (DRP1 and FIS1) after shikonin intervention, as assessed by western blotting. Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. S4. (E) Representative JC-1 staining image after shikonin treatment in BMSCs (scale bar: 100 μm). (F) Flow cytometry analysis of intracellular ROS levels in BMSCs stained with DCFH-DA. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001; ns, not significant