Figure 8.

Effects of alcohol and betaine on PGC-1α signaling pathway proteins involved in lipid oxidation and hepatic fatty acid oxidation rate. Six rats per group were pair fed their respective HFC, HFE, and HFEB liquid diets for 8 weeks, after which they were sacrificed, and hepatic protein expressions were determined by using Western blot analysis, as described in Materials and Methods for SIRT (A), PGC-1α (B), and CPT-1 (C). D: Fatty acid oxidation rate in hepatocytes from each group was measured as described in Materials and Methods. The results are expressed as the means ± SD in each group. Statistical significance of variance was calculated using Tukey's test: ^∗P < 0.05, ^∗∗P < 0.01, and ^∗∗∗P < 0.001 versus HFC; ^†P < 0.05, ^††P < 0.01, and ^†††P < 0.001 versus HFE.