Fig. 2

mRNA expression of brite-associated genes and CIDEA protein levels in inguinal adipose tissue of 9-month-old rats (males and females) fed with a HF or HC diet. L and C make reference to early dietary treatment that was either leucine supplemented diet (L) or control diet (C). GDI expression was used as housekeeping gene. After assuming comparable levels of expression between males and females, all data are expressed as a percentage of male control animals under HC diet (C-HC group). CIDEA protein levels have been referenced to β-actin in the respective samples. Results are mean ± S.E.M (n = 5–6). Effect of sex (S), diet (D) or treatment (T) was assessed by three/two way ANOVA, horizontal bar details the groups involved in the analysis and p value is indicated. Student’s t test was followed for further comparison of groups that differ in one single condition in order to analyse the effect of diet (*) and of leucine treatment (#), and the p values found statistical significant are indicated in the text. Threshold of significance was set at p < 0.05 for all analysis. Cell death-inducing DFFA-like effector A (CIDEA), T-box15 (TBx15), homeobox C9 (HOXC9), short stature homeobox 2 (SHOX2)