Figure 1.
Effect of CLA supplementation on testosterone biosynthesis, perilipin A/C, and hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) levels in R2C cells.
A. Total testosterone biosynthesis following treatment with different CLA concentrations (w/o, 0.5, 1.5 and 7.5 µM CLA). B. Representative western blots showing HSL (84 kDa), perilipin A/C (58 and 42 kDa, respectively), and ß-actin (42 kDa) expression following electrophoretic separation of protein extracts obtained from R2C cells treated with different concentrations of CLA. C. Relative amounts of HSL, ß-actin, perilipin A and C. D. Representative immunofluorescent images of perilipin A/C expression in R2C cells treated with different concentrations of CLA. E. Representative immunofluorescent images of HSL expression in R2C cells treated with different concentrations of CLA. † Significant difference compared to w/o and 0.5 µM CLA (P<0.01).
Figure 2.
Effect of CLA supplementation on steroidogenic genes and proteins in vitro.
A. Real-time PCR analysis of genes encoding steroidogenic enzymes from in vitro R2C cell extract. The graph shows the normalisation with the reference genes, according to the Livak Method (2-∆∆CT). B. Representative western blots showing CYP17A1 (55 kDa) and ß-actin (42 kDa) expression following electrophoretic separation of protein extracts obtained from R2C cells treated with different concentrations of CLA (w/o, 0.5, 1.5 and 7.5 µM CLA). C. Relative amounts of CYP17A1. † Significant difference compared to w/o CLA (P<0.01).
Figure 3.
Effect of CLA supplementation on steroidogenic genes and proteins in vivo.
A. Real-time PCR analysis of genes encoding steroidogenic enzymes from in vivo testicular extracts. The graph shows the normalisation with the reference genes, according to the Livak Method (2-∆∆CT). B. Representative western blots showing CYP17A1 (55 kDa) and ß-actin (42 kDa) expression following electrophoretic separation of protein extracts obtained from testicles. C. Relative amounts of CYP17A1. SED, sedentary; TR, trained; PLA, placebo; CLA, conjugated linoleic acid. ∆ significant difference compared to the PLA-SED and CLA-SED groups (P<0.01). † Significant difference compared to the PLA-TR group (P<0.01).
Figure 4.
Effect of CLA supplementation on body weight, skeletal muscle, strength, and endurance performance in vivo.
A. Changes in body weight over time. B. Weight of the hindlimb anterior muscle groups (tibialis anterior, extensor hallucis longus, and extensor digitorum longus) normalised for body weight. C. Strength of the forelimb. D. Strength of the forelimb normalised to the body weight. E. Distance ran during the endurance test. SED, sedentary; TR, trained; PLA, placebo; CLA, conjugated linoleic acid. # Significant difference compared to time point “0” (P<0.05). ◊ Significant difference compared to the CLA-SED group (P<0.05). $ Significant difference compared to the PLA-SED group (P<0.05).