Anthropometric measurements before, during (1 month) and after 3 months of caloric restriction: Body composition was estimated by impedance analysis.

<p>Shown are means±SEM of n = 23 obese human subjects during a VLCD. Statistical significance was tested by student's t-test, ns = not significant.</p

Adipokine, wnt5a and sFRP5 serum concentrations before, during (1 month) and after 3 months of caloric restriction.

<p>Adipokine, wnt5a and sFRP5 serum concentrations before, during (1 month) and after 3 months of caloric restriction.</p

wnt5a and sFRP5 serum concentrations in lean control subjects and patients with obesity.

<p>Serum samples were taken after an overnight fast and wnt5a and sFRP5 serum concentrations were measured by ELISA. Shown are means±SEM for n = 12 lean control subjects and n = 23 patients with obesity. In order to test for statistical significance, student's t-test was used, ns = not significant.</p

(A+B) Insulin resistance before, during (1 month) and after 3 month of caloric restriction: In the present study insulin resistance was measured by the HOMA-IR index (A) and the leptin-to-adiponectin ration (LAR) (B) since the later parameter has been shown to be closely correlated to measures of insulin resistance by hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp experiments [<b>16</b>].

<p>Data are given as means±SEM of n = 23 obese human subjects during a VLCD. Significance was tested by student's t-test. (<b>C</b>) <i>sFRP serum concentrations before, during (1 month) and after 3 months of caloric restriction</i>: sFRP5 serum concentrations were determined before (0 month), during (1 month) and after (3 months) of a VLCD. In this figure the levels are shown as fold increase compared to 0 month. The raw data are given in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0032437#pone-0032437-t002" target="_blank">table 2</a>. Shown are means±SEM of n = 23 obese human subjects during a VLCD. t-test was used to test for statistical significance.</p