Figure 2

BRWE increases browning of inguinal white adipose tissue in cold-stressed C57BL/6J mice. C57BL/6J mice were treated with BRWE (100 mg·kg⁻¹, oral administration) or phosphate buffered-saline (PBS) for 2 weeks and then placed at 4 °C for 5 h; (A,B) rectal temperature was measured after cold exposure: (C) representative infrared thermal image. (D) Body weight change and (E) adipose tissue weights were measured: (F) representative photograph of adipose tissues after cold exposure for 5 h. (G) H&E staining of iWAT (200× magnification, scale bar = 100 µm) was performed and (H) lipid droplet size were measured. (I,J) Immuno-fluorescent staining of iWAT (1000× magnification, scale bar = 25 µm) with anti-UCP1 antibody (green) was performed. (K,L) Western blot analysis of thermogenesis- and beige-related factors including PRDM16, PGC1α, UCP1, and TBX1 were performed. β-actin was used as a loading control. All data are expressed as the mean ± SEM. ^#p < 0.05, significantly different from blank group; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001, significantly different from control group. Each experiment was repeated at least 3 times, and similar results were obtained. BRWE, black raspberry water extract; iWAT, inguinal white adipose tissue.