Circulating factors present in the sera of naturally skinny people may influence cell commitment and adipocyte differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells

Figure 4 qRT-PCR analysis of adipocyte differentiation markers in mesenchymal stromal cell cultures treated with either normal people or skinny people. The histogram shows the changes in mRNA expression levels of early and late adipocyte differentiation markers in mesenchymal stromal cells after 7 d priming with skinny people (SP) or normal people (NP) sera and further cultivation for 21 d in media with DMEM and 10% fetal bovine serum. Early genes (C/EBPß and C/EBPδ) are used to identify committed adipocyte progenitors, while late genes (PPARγ, C/EBPα, LPL, and ATGL) are expressed in terminally differentiated adipocytes. mRNA levels were normalized with respect to GAPDH, which was chosen as an internal control. Each experiment was repeated at least three times. Data are expressed as fold change in SP vs NP (^aP < 0.05; ^bP < 0.01). NP: Normal people; SP: Skinny people; ATGL: Adipose triglyceride lipase.