Fig. 1

Upregulated TLR8 gene expression in the adipose tissue of obese individuals with or without type-2 diabetes. TLR8 gene expression in the subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsy samples collected from 49 non-diabetic (23 obese, 17 overweight, and nine lean) and 45 type-2 diabetic (T2D) (32 obese, ten overweight, and three lean) individuals was determined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR as described in Methods. The representative data from three independent determinations are shown. (a) TLR8 mRNA expression in non-diabetic individuals was found to be significantly upregulated in the adipose tissue samples of obese as compared with lean individuals (P = 0.01). The increased TLR8 gene expression correlated positively with (b) body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.36; P = 0.01) and (c) body fat percentage (r = 0.34; P = 0.02). (d) TLR8 mRNA expression in T2D patients was also found to be significantly upregulated in the adipose tissue samples from obese as compared with lean and overweight subjects combined (P = 0.04). However, in this cohort, TLR8 gene expression did not correlate with (e) BMI (r = 0.20; P = 0.19) and (f) body fat percentage (r = 0.09; P = 0.54)