Figure 9.

Nuci inhibited lipid accumulation by activating AMPK phosphorylation in fully differentiated human primary adipocytes. Human primary 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 was 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).