Figure 1

Inhibition of DNA methylation by 5-Aza-dC at the early stage of differentiation suppresses 3T3-L1 adipogenesis.

(A) Treatment of 5-Aza-dC at the early differentiation stage from day 1–5 inhibits decreases mRNA expression of adipogenic markers such as PPARγ2, CEBPα and aP2. (B) Treatment of 5-Aza-dC at the early differentiation stage of day 1–2 decreases PPARγ2 protein expression. (C) Oil Red O staining reveals less lipid accumulations in 3T3-L1 cells treated with 5-Aza-dC at the early differentiation stage of day 1–2. 3T3-L1 preadipocyte were induced to differentiate with a differentiation medium as described in the Materials and Methods and were concurrently treated with either PBS or 5-Aza-dC at day 1–2, 3–5 and 6–8 as indicated in the figure and cells were harvested at day 8 of the differentiation for the measurement of gene expression. mRNA and protein levels were measured by real-time RT-PCR and immunoblotting, respectively. Oil Red O staining were performed as described in Materials and Methods. Representative blots and images are shown in (B,C), respectively. All data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 3–6); *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 vs. control.