Disposable cell culture ware was purchased commercially (Corning Glass Works, Corning, NY, USA). The ARPE-19 cell line was purchased from ATCC CRL-2302 (Manassas, VA, USA), and the human retinal endothelial cell (HREC) line was a kind gift from Jena Steinle. Cell culture medium was obtained from Lonza (Walkersville, MD, USA), and fetal bovine serum (FBS) was purchased from Atlanta Biologicals (Flowery Branch, GA, USA). Other materials, purchased commercially, were: permeable supports (Transwell; Corning, Lowell, MA, USA); enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) western blot detection system (Perkin Elmer, Inc., Boston, MA, USA); cleaved active caspase-3 (Asp 175); LC3-I/LC3-II; SQSTM1/p62, phospho-p62 Ser349, Atg5, Atg7, Atg3, p-Akt Ser 473, total-Akt, HDAC-6, GFP, and phospho-S6 Ribosomal protein Ser235/236 antibodies (Cell Signaling Technology, Inc., Beverly, MA, USA); HIF-1 α antibody (Novus Biologicals, Littleton, CO, USA); rabbit polyclonal Prom1 antibody (OriGene, Rockville, MD, USA, and Aviva Systems Biology Corp., San Diego, CA, USA); anti-mouse Prom1/CD133 antibodies (Miltenyi Biotec, Auburn, CA, USA, and GeneTex, Inc., Irvine, CA, USA); Zonula Occludens (ZO-1) and β-catenin antibodies (Zymed Laboratories, South San Francisco, CA, USA); Alexa-Fluor 488 conjugated, Alexa-Fluor 647, and Cy3 conjugated secondary antibodies (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR, USA); RAP, Bafilomycin A1 (BAF), and Torin-1 (EMD Biosciences/Millipore Corp., Billerica, MA, USA); Torin-2 (Tocris Bioscience, Avonmouth, Bristol, UK); Chloroquine (CQ) and Lysotracker (Invitrogen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA); Nutlin-3 and Earle's Balanced Salt Solution (EBSS; Sigma-Aldrich Corp., St. Louis, MO, USA). All chemicals were of the highest purity commercially available.