Figure 5. Requirement for mTOR in induction in mRNAs encoding SREBP-1c (A) and BHLHE40 (B) in livers of rats subjected to fasting and refeeding.

Sixteen male rats (age 2–3 months) were fasted for 48 hr. Six hours prior to sacrifice, eight rats received an intraperitoneal injection of 20 mg/kg rapamycin, and the other eight received vehicle. Four of the animals in the treated and untreated groups continued to fast, and the other four rats were refed a high-carbohydrate diet as described in Materials and methods. After 6 hr, the rats were sacrificed, and livers were homogenized. Equal amounts of total RNA from the livers of the four rats in each group were pooled and subjected to quantitative RT-PCR. Each bar represents the amount of mRNA relative to that of the vehicle-treated fasted group, which was defined as 1.0. Ct values for BHLHE40 and SREBP-1c in the fasted and vehicle treated group were 24.0 and 23.7, respectively.