FIG. 6.

Suppression of the obese phenotype was achieved to a degree by stem cells preferentially diverting from an adipogenic lineage. Reconstructed in vivo μCT images of total body fat (red; A) indicate that, after 12 wk, animals that began LMMS at the time that the high-fat diet was introduced exhibited 22.2% less fat volume compared with controls. In contrast, animals allowed a high-fat diet for 4 wk before LMMS failed to show any reduction of fat volume (B). Shown as a relative percentage of fat to total animal volume, LMMS reduced the percent animal adiposity by 13.5% (p = 0.017), whereas the lack of a response in the already obese animals reinforces a conclusion that the mechanical signal works primarily at the stem cell development level, because existing fat is not metabolized by LMMS stimulation.