Fig. 1.

Galectin-12 deficiency reduces adiposity in mice. (A) Comparison of weights of visceral (epididymal) and subcutaneous (inguinal) white adipose tissue in Lgals12^+/+ and Lgals12^−/− mice (+/+, n = 13; −/−, n = 18), as well as interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) and body weight. (B) Linear regression analyses show that body weight and fat depot weight are highly correlated in Lgals12^+/+ mice (epididymal, R² = 0.586, P = 0.002; inguinal, R² = 0.887, P < 0.0001), but not in Lgals12^−/− mice (epididymal, R² < 0.00001, P = 0.992; inguinal, R² = 0.015, P = 0.676). (C) Triglyceride contents and adipocyte numbers of epidydymal fat depots from Lgals12^+/+ (n = 5) and Lgals12^−/− (n = 4) mice. (D) H&E staining of paraffin sections of epididymal fat depots from Lgals12^+/+ and Lgals12^−/− mice (representative of four experiments). Average diameters of >200 isolated adipocytes were determined from their digital images with ImageJ software using 100-μm Polybead polystyrene microspheres (Polysciences) as references. Results are from 22- to 24-wk-old males. Asterisks denote statistical significance (*P < 0.05).