FIG. 5.

Pharmacological activation of VASP ameliorates hepatic steatosis during the fasting state in db/db mice and mice with high-fat diet–induced obesity. Twelve-week-old db/db and db/+m mice fed chow diet received daily oral administration of either vehicle or the PDE-5 inhibitor sildenafil (30 mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks. For the obesity-induced hepatic steatosis study, WT and Vasp^−/− mice were maintained on a high-fat diet for 8 weeks, and for the last 2 weeks of the diet study mice received 30 mg/kg/day oral sildenafil or vehicle. A: p-VASP (Ser239), p-AMPK (Thr172), and p-ACC (Ser79) as measured by Western blot in the liver samples collected after an overnight fast. Representative Western blots are shown. B: Hepatic TG content as measured enzymatically. *P < 0.05 (db/+m, n = 3; db/db, n = 6). C: p-AMPK (Thr172) as measured by Western blot in the liver sample collected after an overnight fast. Representative Western blots are shown. D: Hepatic TG content as measured enzymatically. *P < 0.05 (n = 5). GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; IB, immunoblot.