Figure 4.

Western blot analysis of GLUT1, glutaminase, and CPT1A protein expression in human syncytiotrophoblast of male and female placentas of lean women, women with obesity, and women with A2GDM. (A) Representative western blots. β-Actin (43 kDa, each lower panel) was used as a loading control, and each gel contained a calibrator sample (Cal) to control for variability between gels. (B) Gels were imaged and bands were quantitated with normalization to β-actin. GLUT1 and glutaminase expression were significantly lower (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01, respectively, Mann–Whitney test) in trophoblast of male (n = 15) vs female (n = 17) placentas when all conditions were combined. (C) Individual values of band intensity for GLUT1, glutaminase, and CPT1A were plotted for each condition, and trophoblast sex and comparisons were made by a Kruskal–Wallis test with a Dunn post hoc test and a Mann–Whitney test, respectively. *P < 0.05 (n = 6, 5, and 4 males and n =7, 5, and 5 females from lean women, women with obesity, and women with A2GDM, respectively). Bars show mean ± SEM.