Fig 2. Expression of brown, beige and white adipocyte markers in adipose tissue samples of children and adults.

A: UCP1 mRNA expression was significantly increased in UCP1^{histological+} samples compared to lean and obese children as well as adult UCP1^{histological-} samples with the exception of a single outlier from an UCP1^{histological-} subcutaneous sample (indicated as black box). B: PRDM16 was also increased in UCP1^{histological+} compared to all other UCP1^{histological-} samples. C, D, E and F: mRNA expression of PAT2, P2RX5, ZIC1 and LHX8 were not different in UCP1^{histological+} samples, although, one UCP1^{histological+} and one UCP1^{histological-} sample presented exceedingly high PAT2 expression values, marked with black squares. G,H and I: mRNA expression of the beige adipocyte markers TMEM26 and HOXC9 was not different in UCP1^{histological+} samples, although, two UCP1^{histological+} samples (from different donors) presented exceedingly high HOXC9 values, marked with black squares. These samples showed only islets of UCP1 positive adipocytes. TBX1 mRNA expression was slightly increased in UCP1^{histological-} samples of lean children and obese adults compared to UCP1^{histological+} samples. J and K: The WAT marker LEP was significantly decreased in UCP1^{histological+} samples compared to UCP1^{histological-} samples in contrast to ASC1, another white specific marker. L: ADIPOQ, a general marker for AT was not different between UCP1^{histological+} and UCP1^{histological-} samples. Target gene expression was normalized to the mean of the three housekeeping genes: ACTB, TBP and HPRT1. Statistical significance was assessed by one-way ANOVA and post-hoc Dunnett’s test and was compared to UCP1^{histological+} samples and marked with *P<0.05; **P< 0.01; ***P<0.001.