FIG. 1.

Selenocysteine lyase knockout (Scly KO) mice are more susceptible to obesity induced by a high-fat diet. (A) Photographic image of wild-type (WT) and Scly KO mice after 3 months on a high-fat diet. Animals were aligned side by side to facilitate visual comparison. M, male; F, female. (B) Percentage of body weight (BW) change at indicated time points upon feeding of a high-fat diet; WT mice n = 8 and Scly KO mice n = 9. (C) BW (g) at 4 months, when euthanasia was performed; WT mice n = 10 and Scly KO mice n = 11. (D) Food consumption measured for nine weeks on a high-fat diet. AUC was calculated for individual mice, averaged and plotted as bar graph. n=6 per group. (E) Inguinal white adipose tissue (ingWAT; n = 3 per group), epididymal WAT (eWAT; n = 13–15) and interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT; n = 7–9) weights at time of euthanasia (4 months). (F) iBAT uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) expression measured by Western blot and normalized by expression levels of alpha tubulin; n = 3 per group. All comparisons were obtained by Student's unpaired t-test, except in (B), where two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied followed by Bonferroni's post hoc test. Values are mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ns, not significant. Black bars and circles: WT mice; white bars and open circles: Scly KO mice. To see this illustration in color, the reader is referred to the web version of this article at www.liebertpub.com/ars