Figure 1.
Roosting of great roundleaf bats and rickett's big-footed bats in the wild.
(a) Great roundleaf bats hung in caves by their foot claws. (b) Ricketts big-footed bats crowded in the caves. (c) An enlarged view of a group of the Ricketts big-footed bats. They attached their entire ventral surface of their bodies to the rock surface or to another individual's back.
Figure 2.
Schematic diagram of intra-abdominal adipose tissue (aWAT), and changes in body weight of bats and mice after exposure to cold temperatures.
(a–b) Schematic diagram of aWAT in the bat (a) and mouse (b). Tissues depicted in yellow are aWAT studied here. mWAT: mesenteric WAT; eWAT: epididymal WAT. (c–d) Changes in the body weighs of bats (c) and mice (d), where one group was kept at room temperature (25°C) and the other at 10°C. Each group was composed of 6 individuals. Data are expressed as means ± SD. Statistical significance is marked above the bars: *, p<0.05.
Table 1.
Sequences of primer used for RT-qPCR.
Figure 3.
Morphological observations in the great roundleaf bats.
(a) HE staining. (b–c) Measurement of adipocytes diameters of sWAT and aWAT from the cold and 30°C temperature groups. Diameter is expressed as means ± SD. Statistical significance: *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01; ***, p<0.001.
Figure 4.
Morphological observations in mice.
(a) HE staining. (b–c) Measurement of adipocytes diameters of sWAT and aWAT from the cold and 30°C temperature groups. Diameter is expressed as means ± SD. Statistical significance: *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01; ***, p<0.001.
Figure 5.
Comparison of relative expression levels of Ucp1 and Pgc1a between WATs and BAT.
(a–b) Ucp1 (a) and Pgc1a (b) expression levels in aWAT, iBAT and sWAT of H. armiger after cold acclimation relative to the levels in aWAT exposed to 30°C for 7 days. (c–d) Ucp1 (c) and Pgc1a (d) expression levels in sWAT, iBAT and aWAT of mice relative to the levels in sWAT exposed to 30°C for 7 days.
Figure 6.
Morphological observations and relative expression levels of Ucp1 and Pgc1a in the rickett's big-footed bats.
(a) HE staining. (b) Measurement of adipocytes diameters of sWAT and aWAT from 10°C and 30°C temperature groups. (c–d) Relative expression levels of Ucp1 (c) and Pgc1a (d) in sWAT, aWAT and iBAT after cold acclimation, comparing to the 30°C control of the corresponding tissue. Fold change expressed as means ± SD. Statistical significance: *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01.