FIG. 4.

Increased apoptosis and oxidative stress were observed in pathological adipose tissues. The amount of the cleaved form of caspase 3 (Activated caspase 3), a hallmark of cell commitment to apoptosis, is expressed as the percentage of the amount in one control, arbitrarily chosen, and the steady-state levels of the mRNAs of DDIT3, a gene involved in the mitochondrial stress response; of NOX4, the gene encoding the adipocyte's NAD(P)H oxidase catalytic subunit; and of CYBB, the gene encoding the phagocytic cell's NAD(P)H oxidase catalytic subunit, were expressed as cDNA copies, normalized to the β-actin cDNA level. The median value of each group of data is shown as a bar on the graph. The asterisks mark statistically significant differences between results for pathological and control samples. Results for patients' samples are shown with open circles, and those for control samples with closed circles.