Figure 6. In vivo synthesis rates of sterols in tissues ofInsig -DKO embryos from pregnant females fed a chow diet with or without lovastatin.

Male and female Insig-1^+/–Insig-2^–/– mice were mated, and mated females were identified and fed ad libitum a regular chow diet or a chow diet containing 0.2% (wt/wt) lovastatin from 5.5 to 18.5 dpc. At 18.5 dpc, pregnant female mice were injected intraperitoneally with ³H-labeled water (50 mCi of in 0.25 ml isotonic saline). One hour later, the embryos were collected by caesarean section for measurement of sterol synthesis in liver (A), head (B), and other tissues (i.e., the whole body minus the liver and head; C). Sterol synthesis was calculated as μmoles of ³H-labeled water incorporated into digitonin-precipitable sterols per hour per gram of tissue. Each bar represents mean ± SEM of values from 16 to 18 embryos.