Figure 8.

Nuci inhibited lipid accumulation by activating AMPK phosphorylation in fully differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were cultured and induced differentiation, then fully differentiated adipocytes were treated as described in the Method 2.9. The protein levels of p-AMPK, t-AMPK, and β-actin were analyzed by Simple western (a), the expression of p-AMPK was normalized against t-AMPK (b). Oil red O staining was conducted and photographed at 100× magnification (c) and Oil red O dye was extracted and detected (e). Cell viability after treatment of 0~20 μM Nuci were determined by CCK-8 (d). Intracellular TG contents (f) were determined by a commercial kit following the manufacturer’s instructions. The mRNA expressions of UCP1 (g), SREBP1 (h), FAS (i), ACC (j), HSL (k), FGF21 (l), and ZAG (m) were determined by RT-qPCR. Data were presented with mean ± SE from three independent experiments, * p < 0.05 vs. the control group (0 μM).