FIG 4.

Downregulation or ablation of Sult2B1b increases the gluconeogenic activity of Hnf4α in mouse primary hepatocytes. (A) Hepatocytes isolated from 8-week-old WT male mice were transfected with scrambled or Sult2B1b-targeting siRNA for 48 h. The downregulation of Sult2B1b was verified by real-time PCR. The expression was arbitrarily set as 1 in cells transfected with scrambled siRNA. (B to E) Relative mRNA expression of Hnf4α (B), G6pase (D), and Pepck (E) and glucose production (C) in hepatocytes transfected with scrambled or Sult2B1b-targeting siRNA for 24 h followed by transfection with the empty vector or the pCMX-Hnf4α-expressing vector for another 24 h. The expression of each gene or glucose production was arbitrarily set as 1 in cells transfected with scrambled siRNA followed by transfection with the empty vector. (F to I) Relative mRNA expression of Hnf4α (F), G6pase (H), and Pepck (I) and glucose production (G) in hepatocytes isolated from 8-week-old male WT or Sult2B1b^−/− mice infected with adenovirus encoding Hnf4α or the control virus. The expression of each gene or glucose production was arbitrarily set as 1 in cells isolated from WT mice infected with the control virus. Results are expressed as means ± SD from three independent experiments. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001.