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. 2013 Sep 3;8(9):e74235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074235

Figure 1. Identification of FTO in cardiomyocytes and cardiac tissue and evidence for its upregulation by leptin.

Figure 1

Panel A shows FTO gene expression in cultured rat ventricular myocytes under control conditions (Ctl) and its stimulation by leptin (L) and lack of effect in the presence of the leptin receptor receptor antagonist SHLA (A). Panels B and C show Western blots and their quantitative analyses with identical treatments as shown in panel A. These panels also show suppression of FTO in myocytes transfected with FTO siRNA. Panels D and E demonstrate Western blots and their quantitative assessment of whole hearts from control animals or animals fed a high fat diet (H) for 12 weeks. The results also show suppression of cardiac FTO protein expression in animals treated with an antibody directed against the leptin receptor (LRAb) every two days during the feeding period. Panels F and G show identical treatments as for panels D and E demonstrating inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation in hearts of animals treated with the LRAb. Quantitative data are presented as mean+SEM. N = 8 for myocyte data in panels A and C and N = 5 for data shown in panels E and G. *P<0.05 from respective control group (or H group in panels E and G); +P<0.05 from respective group in the absence of siFTO (-siFTO).