Fig. 3.

a Dietary AGE intake correlates inversely with PPARγ protein expression in MNC of healthy older subjects. Upper panel Western blot analysis of PPARγ protein in MNC of a subgroup of randomly selected study participants (n = 8) with widely varying levels of dAGE consumption, as indicated. Middle panel Densitometric analysis of western blot data shown in upper panel and expressed as PPARγ/β-actin ratio. Individual density data on PPARγ protein are juxtaposed with the corresponding fasting serum CML, based on CML ELISA, expressed in U/ml. Lower panel PPARγ/β-actin ratios are grouped in those from persons with high dietary AGE intake (>15 Eq/day, open bar) and those with low-AGE intake (<10 Eq of AGE/day, closed bar), *p = 0.01. b AGE restriction restores MNC PPARγ expression. Representative western blot analysis and densitometric analysis data from study participants exposed to their regular diet (open bar) or a low-AGE diet (closed bar) for 4 months, indicating entry (1) and end of study (2). Data, based on PPARγ/β-actin ratio, are shown as the percentage (mean ± SEM) of change from baseline. *p = 0.001 indicates the significance between low-AGE and regular diet