Fig. 9: Mice with specific deletion of TRKC in sympathetic neurons exhibit impaired cold-induced thermogenesis and are prone to diet-induced obesity.

a–f Core body temperature (a, n = 4/group, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test), fat pad mass (b, n = 4/group, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test), Ucp1 and other thermogenic gene expression in iBAT (c, for Ucp1, fl/fl n = 9, STRKCKO n = 7; for other genes, fl/fl n = 5, STRKCKO n = 4, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test), Representative H&E and UCP1 immunostaining in iBAT (d, from three replicate animals/group, scale bar = 75 µm), Ucp1 and other thermogenic gene expression in iWAT (e, fl/fl n = 10, STRKCKO n = 6, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test), and representative UCP1 immunostaining images showing UCP1-positive beige adipocytes in iWAT (f, from three replicate animals/group, scale bar=150 µm) of fl/fl and STRKCKO mice during a 7-day cold challenge. g–l Body composition (g, n = 5/group, *indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test), representative H&E staining of iBAT and iWAT (h, from three replicate animals/group, scale bar for iBAT = 75 µm, and for iWAT = 150 µm), UCP1 and TH protein levels in iBAT (i, fl/fl n = 6, STRKCKO n = 5, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test), representative UCP1 immunostaining in iBAT (j, from three replicate animals/group, scale bar = 75 µm), GTT (k, fl/fl n = 5, STRKCKO n = 6, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test) and ITT (l, fl/fl n = 5, STRKCKO n = 6, * indicates statistical significance between fl/fl and STRKCKO with unpaired two-tailed t test) of fl/fl and STRKCKO mice fed a HFD. All data are expressed as mean ± SEM.