Fig 2: Correlation analysis between HMA and p62, LC3-II, GRP78, and ATF6. The expression of PBMCs in HD patients: (a) correlation analysis between HMA and p62 (b) correlation analysis between HMA and LC3-II, (c) correlation analysis between HMA and GRP78, (d) correlation analysis between HMA and ATF6. LC3-II, microtubule associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3A; GRP78, glucose-regulated protein 78 kDa (BiP); ATF6, activating transcription factor 6. Black dots represent values of the various variables (X-axis). The red line represents the line of best fit.

Fig 3: ER Stress and UPR marker levels of PBMCs in NC and HD patients with/without DM. (a) Representative western blot images of protein expression. Levels of the autophagy-associated proteins (b) GRP 78, (c) p-eIF2α, and (d) ATF6 were quantified. GAPDH was used as a loading control. The number of NC subjects was 10, non-DM HD was 17, and DM HD was 23. * p < 0.05 is NC vs. non-DM HD. ** p < 0.05 is NC vs. DM HD. GRP78, glucose-regulated protein 78/72 kDa (BiP); p-eIF2α, phosphorylated eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2, subunit 1 alpha; ATF6, activating transcription factor 6; NC, normal control; HD, hemodialysis; DM, diabetes; NDM, non-DM.