Fig. 1

WAT atrophy precedes skeletal muscle wasting during early cachexia development in YES2 tumour-bearing mice. a Schematic diagram of in vivo subcutaneous injection of PBS or YES2 cells in the right flank of six-week-old BALB/C nude mice and corresponding samples collected at three time points (T-1, T-2, and T-3). The pair-fed (PF) group was established on day 18 post inoculation. b Food intake curves of the PBS and YES2 groups. c Total body weight (TBW) curves of the three groups. d Non-tumour body weight (NBW) of the three groups at three time points. e–g Ratios of tissue weight to NBW, including adipose tissues (iWAT, eWAT, and iBAT) and skeletal muscle (GA, TA, and QA), in the three groups at T-1 (e), T-2 (f), and T-3 (g). h, i Representative hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining images of iWAT (h) and GA (i) from the three groups at three time points. Scale bar, 50 μm. The quantified adipocyte sizes and cross-sectional areas of the myofibers are shown on the right. j Immunoblots of p-HSL (Ser563), total HSL, and UCP1 in iWAT from the three groups at T-1. M: molecular mass markers. k Representative immunohistochemistry (IHC) images of UCP1 staining in iWAT from YES2 groups at three time points; iWAT from the PF group was used as a negative control. Scale bar, 25 μm. l Immunoblots of UCP1 in the iWAT of the PF and YES2 groups at three time points. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 5 for the PBS and PF groups; n = 10 for the YES2 group at each time point). The exact P values were tested with an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test (b), a multiplied t test (c), and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (d–i). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; n.s. no significance, iWAT inguinal white adipose tissue, eWAT epididymal WAT, iBAT interscapular brown adipose tissue, GA gastrocnemius, TA tibialis anterior, QA quadriceps femoris