Fig 2: Hepatic persistent ER stress selectively down-regulates the expression of 3-MST enzyme for H2S synthesis; such an effect is reversible upon the exogenous donation of H2S. HepG2 cells were serum-starved for 8 h and treated with the vehicle or 100 nM of thapsigargin (TG), in the presence or absence of 100 µM NaHS for 16 h. Subsequently, cells were harvested and the extracted protein was processed for Western blotting analysis of 3-MST (a,b), CBS (a,c), CSE (a,d), ETHE1 (a,e), and TST (rhodanese) (a,f) enzymes. Each graph line represents mean ± SEM from four independent experiments. Data are expressed as a fold change of the control (vehicle-treated) conditions (CC). ** p = 0.01 and *** p = 0.001 compared to CC; ### p = 0.001 compared to the TG-treated cells. For abbreviations used, please refer to the main text.

Fig 3: The expression of mRNA of these common differential genes in tissuesThe expression levels of mRNA COL12A1 (G), COL1A2 (D), COL4A1 (E), SPARC (K), COL5A2 (F) and COL1A1 (C) was increased, while ACAA1 (A), ACOX1 (B), CPT2 (H), SQRDL (L), HMGCS2 (J), ETHE1 (I) and TST (M) were decreased. *P < 0.05.

Fig 4: Expression of H2S-producing and -catabolizing enzymes in GYY4137-treated cells. A Representative Western blot images of adipocytes treated with different concentration of GYY4137 and corresponding densitometry analysis of B 3-MST, C CBS, D CSE, E ETHE1, and F TST in differentiated adipocytes (day 7). ß-Actin was used as loading control. Data refer to mean values of N = 5 independent experiments ± SEM. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 show significant differences compared to control values in the absence of GYY417 treatment

Fig 5: The expression of proteins of these common differential genes in tissuesThe expression levels of protein COL12A1 (G), COL1A2 (D), COL4A1 (E), SPARC (K), COL5A2 (F) and COL1A1 (C) was increased, while ACAA1 (A), ACOX1 (B), CPT2 (H), SQRDL (L), HMGCS2 (J), ETHE1 (I) and TST (M) were decreased. *P < 0.05.