Effect of 24-h fasting on bioluminescent signals in pancreas of p7kb-Bmp4Luc transgenic mice.

<p>(A) Transgenic mice subjected to 24-h fasting were injected in the tail vein with D-luciferin (150 mg/kg). At 1-min post-injection, bioluminescent images were obtained by 1-min exposure in the imaging system. The insets show high-magnification views of the pancreas. (B) The bioluminescent signals were quantified using Living Image software, and the intensity of luminescence is shown as photons/second/cm²/steradian (p/s/cm²/sr), indicated by individual color bars. The data are shown as mean ± SE from three independent experiments. Asterisk (*) represents significant difference (p<0.05) by Student's <i>t</i>-test. (C) Western blot analysis of the pancreas from fasted transgenic mice was performed using antibodies to murine Bmp4 and β-actin. (D) Quantification of Bmp4 protein levels by western blotting (C) using an image analyzer. The Bmp4 protein levels were normalized to β-actin as the internal standard.