Fig. 3

Increased TLR8 protein expression in the adipose tissue samples from obese and overweight type-2 diabetic (T2D) individuals. TLR8 protein expression in the subcutaneous adipose tissue samples from 13 T2D patients comprising three lean, five overweight and five obese individuals was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and confirmed by confocal microscopy as described in Methods. TLR8 protein expression in the adipose tissue samples was quantified by using Aperio ImageScope software (Aperio Vista, CA, USA) and algorithm (version 9); while on average, 700 cells were counted for each sample. The representative data from three independent determinations are shown. TLR8 protein expression is shown by using (a) immunohistochemistry (arrows); (b) confocal microscopy wherein red color represents TLR8-specific staining and blue color represents nuclei staining (40× magnification). (c) TLR8 protein expression quantified as IHC staining intensity shows significantly higher expression in obese (P = 0.0001) and overweight (P = 0.003) individuals as compared with lean counterparts. (d) The adipose tissue TLR8 protein expression in T2D patients correlates with BMI (r = 0.87 P < 0.0001)