Fig. 1: Selective protein expression in brown adipocytes in vivo.

a Schematic of Cre recombinase-dependent AAV-FLEX recombination and interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT) transduction. Created in BioRender. Kazak, L. (2025) https://BioRender.com/j99d203. b Western blot of iBAT harvested from female AdipoqCre^- and AdipoqCre⁺ mice (8 weeks of age), transduced with AAV-FLEX-GFP-FLAG (n = 2 per group). s.e., short exposure; l.e., long exposure. c Western blot of stromal vascular fraction (SVF) and acutely purified brown adipocytes (BA) from iBAT, harvested from female AdipoqCre^- and AdipoqCre⁺ mice (16 weeks of age), one week after being transduced with AAV-FLEX-GFP-FLAG (n = 2 per group). d Representative immunofluorescence images of iBAT from female AdipoqCre⁺ mice transduced with AAV-FLEX-GFP-FLAG. Mature adipocytes were labelled with anti-Perilipin 1 (PLIN1) antibody (red), GFP-FLAG was labeled with anti-FLAG antibody (green). Nuclei were labelled with DAPI (blue). Brown adipocytes (B), connective tissue (C), and muscle (M). Scale bars, 100 μm. This experiment was repeated 5 times with similar results. e Representative confocal immunofluorescence images of iBAT from female AdipoqCre⁺ mice transduced with AAV-FLEX-GFP-FLAG. Mature adipocytes were labelled with anti-Perilipin 1 (PLIN1) antibody (red), GFP-FLAG was labeled with anti-FLAG antibody (green). Nuclei were labelled with DAPI (blue). Brown adipocytes (B), connective tissue (C), and muscle (M). Scale bars, 20 μm. f The percentages of cells (total of 388 cells) that were positive or negative for FLAG (297 positive and 91 negative cells) and PLIN1 (328 positive and 60 negative cells) were counted manually from Fig. 1e and Supplementary Fig. 1a. f. Two-way ANOVA (Fisher’s LSD test). Data are presented as the mean ± s.e.m. n numbers are of biologically independent experiments. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.