Reduction of adipocyte differentiation by carvacrol in 3T3-L1 cells.

3T3-L1 preadipocytes were grown in differentiation medium for 7 days (totally 90% differentiation) and treated with 25μ M carvacrol. After 7 days of adipogenic differentiation, visualization of triglyceride accumulation by Oil-Red O staining was conducted. (A) Cells were observed at optical Zeiss microscope and photographed. (B) Four adjacent 1 mm squares were counted, blind to group, using an inverted microscope and using criterion described for quantification of adipocyte differentiation [48]. The percentage of cells that underwent adipogenic differentiation was expressed as number of cells Red Oil positive/total. (C) Lipid accumulation was measured through a spectrophotometer. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n 3). * p<0.05 (differentiated + carvacrol vs differentiated cells).