Figure 6.

NTM treatment attenuates expression of the master regulators of lipid metabolism in the liver. SREBP transcription factors and their target gene transcripts in ldlr^−/− mice fed a Western diet. A and B, Immunoblot analysis of (A) SREBP1 and (B) SREBP2 proteins in whole‐cell liver extracts from mice treated with saline (S1 to S4) or cSN50.1 peptide (P1 to P4) for 8 weeks by osmotic pump. Full‐length precursor (pSREBP) and mature nuclear (nSREBP) forms are present in liver extracts from control mice but are suppressed in extracts from NTM‐treated mice. Quantitative analysis of immunoblots indicates significant suppression of nSREBP1 and nSREBP2 expressed as their relative ratio to beta actin control. Each panel shows samples from the same membrane. C, Transcript expression of SREBP1 and SREBP2 and their target genes in the livers of mice treated with NTM administered by osmotic pump for 4 and 8 weeks with saline (white bars) or cSN50.1 peptide (black bars). Expression was measured by real‐time RT‐PCR with 18S mRNA used as an invariant control. Shown are mean+SEM of 5 mice per group (*P<0.05 and **P<0.005 by Mann–Whitney test). NTM indicates nuclear transport modifier; ldlr^−/−, low‐density lipoprotein receptor deficient; SREBP, sterol regulatory element‐binding protein; RT‐PCR, reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction.