Fig 2: Hydrogen inhibits CRC cell proliferation by decreasing pAKT/SCD1. (a) IHC assay in tumors (RKO cells) after H2 treatment and control (100x). (b) Western blot analysis showing the expression levels of p-PI3K, PI3K, AKT, pAKT, and SCD1 in RKO, SW480, and HCT116 cells before and after H2 treatment. Western blotting assays showed that the expression of SCD1 was significantly upregulated and presented a dose-dependent effect with SC79 treatment. (c) The inhibition of cell proliferation induced by H2 was reversed when cells were treated with SC79, as determined by the CCK-8 assay.

Fig 3: The prognostic value of SCD1 expression in primary CRC. Survival curves for disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in stages I–III colorectal cancer according to SCD1 status: (a) DFS according to SCD1; (b) OS according to SCD1.

Fig 4: β-sitosterol promotes LPS-induced milk fat synthesis-related genes in MAC-T cells. MAC-T cells were treated with β-sitosterol (1 μM) or LPS (1 μg/mL) for 24 h. (A) Protein level of SCD in MAC-T cells. (B) Protein level of PSMA5 in MAC-T cells. (C) Protein level of LPL in MAC-T cells. (D) FASN mRNA level in MAC-T cells. (E) SREBP1 mRNA level in MAC-T cells. All values are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 3). Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences compared to the control group (p < 0.05).

Fig 5: Effects of dietary medium sodium butyrate (MSB) addition on fatty acid synthesis related mRNA and protein expression in the bovine mammary gland. (A) The mRNA expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARγ), sterol regulatory element-binding factor 1 (SREBF1), acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase-α (ACACA), fatty acid synthase (FASN), stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), and FABP3 in bovine mammary glands treated with SB (0 and 200 g/d SB per cow). Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as the reference gene. n = 10 per group, and values are the mean ± SEM. The relative mRNA expression level of each target gene was standardized to that in the control group. (B) Western blot analysis of PPARγ (the specific bands with an arrow), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1), ACACA (the specific bands with an arrow), FASN, and SCD in bovine mammary gland tissues. β-Actin was used as a loading control. n = 6 per group, selected randomly from the same block of two groups. (C) Mean ± SEM of immunopositive bands of PPARγ, SREBP1, ACACA, FASN, and SCD. The relative protein expression level of each target protein was standardized to that in the control group. ∗P < 0.05 and ∗∗P < 0.01 versus the control group.