Figure 4.

Phaeodactylum tricornutum ethanolic extract (PTE) activates interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) in C57BL/6J mice fed with a high fat diet (HFD). Representative microphotographs illustrating BAT activation and Uncoupling protein (UCP) 1 immunostaining (A), UCP1 and Mitofusin (MFN) 2 protein levels as determined by immunoblotting in BAT (B), and mRNA levels of selected genes in BAT (C) at the end of the experiment. HFD-fed mice received daily an oral dose of PTE (100 mg or 300 mg/kg body weight) or placebo (olive oil:water, 2:1, v:v) for 26 days. Data are the mean ± SEM of 5–6 male mice/group and are expressed relative to the mean value of the vehicle group, which was set to 100. To compare between two groups the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test was used: *, different from vehicle; and #, different between doses. Threshold of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05; in (B), p values < 0.1 are also indicated.