Fig. 1.

Effect of KBH-1 on lipid accumulation and the activation of lipogenic enzymes in HepG2 cells. HepG2 cells cultured in DMEM/F12 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, then exposed to a mixture for FFA (oleic acid/palmitic acid at 2:1) at a final concentration of 1 mM for 24 h, and the effect of various concentrations of KBH-1 (10–90 μg/ml) was monitored. (a) Fat droplets in cells were stained with Oil Red O dye. (b) The FFA-induced phosphorylation of AMPK and ACC was measured using SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. ACC, AMPK, and β-actin were used for normalization (n = 3). (c) The FFA-induced mRNA expression of major lipogenic transcription factors (SREBP-1c, SCD-1, CD36, ACC, ACOX1, CPT-1 and PPARα) was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. The results are expressed as a relative density after normalization to the β-actin mRNA level. The data are expressed as the mean ± SEM. Significant differences from each control (no KBH-1 treatment) are indicated by **p < 0.001