FIGURE 1.

Effect of wild type or mutant HMGCS2 expression on activity, ketogenesis, and fatty acid β-oxidation. HepG2 cells were infected with adenovirus control (AdGFP) or expressing wild type (AdHMGCS2 WT) or C166A mutant (AdHMGCS2 MUT) human HMGCS2 for 48 h. A, enzymatic activity was measured in dialyzed mitochondria preparation. B, total ketone bodies were determined in the medium. C, total [¹⁴C]palmitate oxidation was measured in HepG2 cells infected with adenoviruses expressing human HMGCS2 variants or human PPARα (AdPPARα). The average of three independent experiments is shown. The bottom panel shows a representative Western blot of recombinant PPARα and recombinant (left) or endogenous (right) HMGCS2. 10 μg of whole cell extract were loaded to show recombinant HMGCS2 expression, and 70 μg were loaded to show endogenous HMGCS2. *, p < 0.05, ***, p < 0.001.