LC3-II Tagging and Western Blotting for Monitoring Autophagic Activity in Mammalian Cells

The autophagosome-associated protein LC3-II is commonly used as a marker of autophagic activity within cells, but its levels are affected by both formation and degradation of autophagosomes. This can make the significance of altered LC3-II levels ambiguous. Here we describe the method of Bafilomycin A1 blotting, in which the degradation of autophagosomes is prevented in cultured cells, allowing the causes of altered LC3-II levels to be determined.