3.2. Regulation of sheep hepatic α-TTP
The result of qRT-PCR indicated that dietary vitamin E levels did not affect sheep α-TTP mRNA expression significantly (PN0.05) (Fig. 2A). As shown in Fig. 2B, the anti-α-TTP antibody and the anti-β-actin antibody detected a band of ~32 kDa and ~42 kDa in the Western-blot analysis of the liver cytosolic fraction, respectively. The signals from the higher vitamin E groups (E200 and E2000) were relatively stronger than those from the lower vitamin E groups (E0, E20 and E100). Results of image analysis also showed that groups with higher vitamin E supplementation (E200 and E2000) had significantly higher α-TTP protein expression levels compared to lower vitamin E groups (E0, E20 and E100) (Pb0.05) (Fig. 2C).