Sequential Expression of Wnt/β-catenin Signal Pathway Related Genes and Adipocyte Transcription Factors During Porcine Adipose Tissue Development

To evaluate the influence of Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway on the porcine adipose tissue development and explore the mechanism, we detected the mRNA expression of Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway related genes: β-catenin, GSK3β, Fz1 and adipogenic transcription factors: PPARγ, C/EBPα and early differentiation marker gene LPL with semi-quantitative (SQ) RT-PCR method. Immunohistochemical method (IHC) was applied to qualitatively measure the sequential expression of β-catenin protein. The results of SQ RT-PCR showed that β-catenin highly expressed at the first day after birth, then decreased to a low plateau after 60 days, the expression of GSK3β and Fz1 also decreased with the development process of the porcine adipose tissue development. However, the sequential expression of PPARγ, C/EBPα, LPL appeared to be an opposite manner and kept at a high level after 60 days. The result of IHC showed that the expression of β-catenin protein was strong in nucleus and cytoplasm at the first day after birth, then tended to decline with the process of adipose tissue development and could be only found in cytoplasm after 30-day old. These results suggest that β-catenin plays an important role in the undifferentiated state maintenance of preadipocytes and the inhibition of porcine adipose tissue development, the mechanism maybe due to its regulation function on the adipogenic transcription factors PPARγ, C/EBPα and early differentiation marker gene LPL.