Fig. 5. Autophagy flux vanishes in prolonged post-treatment of UV-B in GA treated HDFs. UV-B irradiation to HDFs impairs autophagic flux in prolonged exposure (24 h). GA pre-treatment blocks the autophagy response in UV-B -irradiated HDFs as is evident from western blotting analysis of P62, BECN1 & mTOR proteins, (Fig. 5A, 5B & 5C respectively), (*p<0.05, (**p<0.01 as compared to UV-B only & GA treated). UV-B -irradiation to HDFs suppresses the AKT/PTEN axis whereas GA stabilizes it owing to its cell protection effect in HDFs as is evident from western blotting analysis, (Fig. 5D & 5E), (*p<0.05 as compared to untreated, (*p<0.05, **p<0.01 as compared to GA treated).