Figure 6.

Clustering of the plasma proteins significantly changed in obese rats. Based on the GO : BP (DAVID functional annotation results with Bonferroni statistics) database, plasma proteins were assigned to their respective particular biological function (n=8). Most of the proteins (36%) were involved in the negative regulation of endopeptidase activity (p<0.001, not shown; refer to Supplemental Data for details). 17% of the proteins were involved in immunological regulation (GO:0006956~complement activation, GO:0006958~complement activation). In addition, 17% of molecules participated in the pro-inflammatory response (GO:0006953~acute-phase response, p<0.001; GO:0045087~innate immune response, p<0.01; GO:0006954~inflammatory response, p<0.05). The next biological process changed in the plasma of obese rats included the abnormal level of proteins involved in the regulation of any process that results in a systemic change as a result of a triglyceride stimulus (GO:0034014~response to triglyceride, p<0.05). The pool of proteins (three molecules) involved in processes that stop, prevent, or reduce the frequency, rate, or extent of fibrinolysis resulting in the removal of small blood clots was downregulated in the plasma of obese animals (GO:0051918~negative regulation of fibrinolysis, p<0.05). Data are presented as mean of fold change of control. The Student’s t-test was used for analyzing the data (*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001). APOA4: apolipoprotein A-IV; APOC3: apolipoprotein C-III; C1R: complement C1r subcomponent; C1S: complement C1s subcomponent; C4BPA: C4b-binding protein alpha chain; C6: complement component C6; HPRG: histidine-rich glycoprotein; SERPINF2: serpin family F member 2.