Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression profiles of bone morphogenetic protein and activin membrane-bound
inhibitor (BAMBI) during the development of mouse adipose tissue. Methods The total RNA was extracted for real-time PCR
for amplification of BAMBI mRNA from the suprascapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) and subcutaneous (inguinal) and
visceral (gonadal) white adipose tissue (sWAT and vWAT, respectively) of mice at various embryonic and postnatal stages, as
well as from isolated primary preadipocytes during differentiation. Results In BAT, BAMBI mRNA levels exhibited a transient
increase, peaking at day 0 (D0) and declined thereafter. sWAT and vWAT could be isolated from mice from postnatal D21
onwards, in which BAMBI mRNA levels were the highest and decreased at 8 weeks and 6 months. BAMBI mRNA levels were
also significantly reduced in primary preadipocytes isolated from vWAT after induced differentiation. BAMBI mRNA
expression level was higher in vWAT than in sWAT and BAT at the same developmental stages. Conclusion BAMBI is
differentially expressed in different adipose tissues and developmental stages, which supports the hypothesis that BAMBI
plays a pivotal role in the development of adipose tissues.