Fig. 1: Chronic high EPO transgenic expression in young mice decreased fat mass, increased glucose and insulin tolerance, and reduced adipocyte size in adipose tissue.

Metabolic parameters were determined for young, male Tg6-mice (constitutive transgenic EPO expression) compared with wild-type (WT) mice on normal chow diet from postnatal 21 days to postnatal 100 days. a Tg6-mice exhibited reduced body size and smaller fat pads from subcutaneous WAT (scWAT), epididymal WAT (eWAT) and BAT compared with WT-mice. Scale bar: 1.0 cm. b–h Body weight (b F(6, 18) = 2.82), fat mass (c F(2.220, 6.660) = 3.209), glucose tolerance test (GTT) (e F(5, 49) = 323.1) and area under the curve (AUC) for GTT (f t = 33.26, df = 21), and insulin tolerance test (ITT) (g F(5, 49) = 6.470) and AUC for ITT (h t = 15.07, df = 21) were reduced, but lean mass (d F(6, 18) = 0.5754) was similar in Tg6-mice (red) compared with WT-mice (gray). i–k H&E-stained sections of adipose tissue from scWAT (i), eWAT (j), and BAT (k) showed reduced adipocyte size in Tg6-mice (red) compared with WT-mice (gray). p values are indicated. f, h: t-test; b–e, g, i–k: two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test. Scale bar: scWAT: 50 μm; eWAT and BAT: 25 μm. b–d WT-mice and Tg6-mice: n = 4/group; e–h WT-mice: n = 12, Tg6-mice: n = 11; i–k n = 200 cells/group. f, h Data shown as mean ± SEM. f, h: two-sided unpaired t-test. p values indicated in figure. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.