Figure 2: Beneficial effects of β-conglycinin in wild-type (WT) or FGF21-deficient (KO) mice.

Five-week-old male WT and FGF21 KO mice were acclimated to the casein high-fat diet for 7 days, and then fed with either the casein or β-conglycinin (β-con) diet for 9 weeks. After 6 h of starvation, mice were sacrificed. (a) Body weight of mice. All data are expressed as means ± SD (n = 6–8). (b) Total food consumption over 9 weeks. **P < 0.01 determined by two-tailed Student’s t-test. (c) Body weight gain over 9 weeks. (d) Adipose tissue (epididymal and subcutaneous white adipose tissue, and brown adipose tissue) weights of mice. (e) Expression levels of FGF21 mRNA in the liver are normalized to cyclophilin mRNA levels and are shown as fold induction to expression levels in the casein group of WT mice. *P < 0.05 determined by two-tailed Student’s t-test. (f‒k) Serum FGF21, glucose, insulin, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol, and Igf-1 concentrations. (l) Liver TG contents. (m) Liver total cholesterol contents. (n) Expression levels of ATF4 target gene mRNA in the liver are normalized to cyclophilin mRNA levels and are shown as fold induction to expression levels in the casein group of WT mice. (o) Expression levels of mRNA related to lipid metabolism in the liver are normalized to cyclophilin mRNA levels and are shown as fold induction to expression levels in the casein group of WT mice. (p) Expression levels of mRNA related to bile acid metabolism in the ileum are normalized to β-actin mRNA levels and are shown as fold induction to expression levels in the casein group of WT mice. (q‒s) Expression levels of mRNA related to lipolysis in adipose tissues are normalized to 18S ribosomal RNA levels and are shown as fold induction to expression levels in the casein group of WT mice.