RNAseq of Rhesus macaque adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in response to FGF21 treatment

Ten diet-induced obese Rhesus macaques were treated with fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) for 12 weeks, which resulted in an average of 18% weight loss. Tissue punch biopsies were taken from abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue and gastrocnemius skeletal muscle pre-treatment, at the end of treatment, and after a 16 week washout period. Numerous genes were found to be differentially expressed between pre-treatment, post-treatment, and washout time points in adipose tissue; however, high amounts of inter-sample variation in muscle tissue gene expression levels obscured any differences between pre- and post-treatment in skeletal muscle. Overall design: From adipose tissue, 10 samples each from pre-treatment, post-treatment, and washout time points. From skeletal muscle, only 6-7 samples per time point met RNA integrity or RNA sequencing quality requirements. As the same animals were used for all three time points, the pre-treatment time point served as an untreated control in a paired design.