Effect of hepatic ACAT2 down regulation on <i>Soat2</i> expression, and on the liver lipid content.

<p><i>Soat2</i> mRNA was quantified by real-time RT-PCR in samples from liver (A), proximal (B) and distal intestine (C). Data were standardized for <i>Tfiib</i> mRNA expression, and normalized to WT Ctrl in each experiment. Cholesteryl ester (CE; D), unesterified cholesterol (UC; E), and triglyceride (TG; F) mass was measured in liver lipid extracts by enzymatic assays as described in the methods section. Cholesteryl esters were calculated subtracting the mass of unesterified cholesterol to total cholesterol, and adjusted for the mass of the moiety of fatty acid in CE. Liver lipid levels were normalized for the hepatic protein content. 7α-hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one (C4; G) mass was measured in the liver lipid extracts by LC-MS/MS, and normalized for the hepatic total cholesterol (TC) mass. Error bars represent the median. Mann Whitney test, * p<0.05, ** p< 0.01, *** p<0.001.