Figure 3
From: Maternal obesity is associated with a reduction in placental taurine transporter activity
Representative western blots of placental membrane-enriched fractions from three women of ideal weight (IW) and three women who were obese class III (BMI⩾40 kg m−2: obese, OB) subjects probed for TauT and β-actin. Protein loading was 50 μg per lane. (a) After probing for TauT, an immunoreactive species was detected at ~69 kDa in all samples. (b) After re-probing membranes for β-actin, an immunoreactive species was detected at ~44 kDa. (c) Scatter plots display densitometric analysis of TauT signal intensity after normalizing to β-actin (line at median). There was no significant difference in TauT protein expression between IW (n=6) and OB (n=7) groups (Mann–Whitney U-test: P>0.05). (d) Placental TauT activity, in the same placentas in which TauT expression was determined, was significantly lower in class III obese women (n=7; (○)) than women of IW (n=6; (○)) (mean±s.e.; *P<0.05, least squares linear regression).
