SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION doi:10.1038/nature11464 Supplemental Figure S1. The expression of Vegfb is increased in obese and diabetic mice as compared to lean mice. a-b, Body weight and postprandial blood glucose for lean wt (n= 20), high fat diet (HFD) fed wt (n= 18) and db/db (n= 19) mice. c, Quantification of neutral lipid accumulation by oil red O (ORO) analysis on sections from skeletal (sk.) and cardiac muscles (n= 4/group). d-g, Relative mrna expression of Mitochondrial transcription factor A (d, Tfam), NADH dehydrogenase ubiquinone 1 alpha subcomplex subunit 5 (e, Ndufa5), Vegfb (f) and Fatp3 (g), in skeletal and cardiac muscles (n= 4/group). N.s., non significant. #P<0.05, ##P<0.01, ###P<0.001 compared to lean mice. Values are means ± s.e.m. WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE 1
RESEARCH SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplemental Figure S2. HFD-fed Vegfb -/- mice retain normoglycemia despite increased body weight. Endpoint analysis of male wt (n= 18) and Vegfb -/- (n= 20) mice that were kept on a HFD for 12 weeks. a-c, Body weight (a), visceral fat pads mass (b) and blood glucose levels (c). *P<0.05 as compared to HFD-fed wt controls. Values are means ± s.e.m. 2 WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION RESEARCH Supplemental Figure S3. Male and female db/db//vegfb +/- and db/db//vegfb -/- mice have lower blood glucose levels than db/db mice, and retain weight gain. Analysis of db/db (n= 15 females, n= 10 males), db/db//vegfb +/- (n= 21 females, n= 11 males) and db/db//vegfb -/- (n= 12 females, n= 8 males) mice shown separately for both sexes. a-b, Postprandial blood glucose levels of female and male mice. c-d, Body weight separately shown for female and male mice. Statistical significance analyses are omitted for clarity in a-d. e-f, Mean change in body weight during the indicated time periods for female and male mice. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 compared to db/db controls. Values are means ± s.e.m. WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE 3
RESEARCH SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplemental Figure S4. Genetic deletion of Vegfb does not influence food intake. a, Mean food intake per day in lean male wt (n= 13) and Vegfb -/- (n= 15) mice and HFD-fed male wt (n= 6) and Vegfb -/- (n= 5) mice. b, Mean food intake in male and female db/db (n= 3 males, n= 7 females), db/db//vegfb +/- (n= 3 males, n= 6 females) and db/db//vegfb -/- mice (n= 3 males, n= 7 females). Values are means ± s.e.m. Supplemental Figure S5. Muscular expression of Vegfb and Fatp3. a-b, mrna expression of Vegfb (a) and Fatp3 (b) in skeletal (sk.) muscle of db/db (n= 4), db/db//vegfb +/- (n= 4) and db/db//vegfb -/- (n= 5) mice, and in cardiac muscle of db/db (n= 6), db/db//vegfb +/- (n= 7) and db/db//vegfb -/- (n= 7) mice. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 as compared to db/db controls. Values are means ± s.e.m. 4 WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION RESEARCH Supplemental Figure S6. Genetic deletion of VEGF-B in diabetic db/db animals improves metabolic balance. a, Staining of neutral lipids by ORO on cardiac muscles from of lean, db/db, db/db//vegfb +/- and db/db//vegfb -/- mice (scale bar 100 µm). Quantification of stained lipids is shown in Fig. 1f. b, Mean cardiac [2-18F]-2- Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([ 18 F]FDG) accumulation in db/db and db/db//vegfb -/- mice (n= 4/group) during 60 minutes of positron-emission tomography (PET) analyses. c, Relative hepatic mrna expression of Pck1, Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1; G6pc, Glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic; Fasn, Fatty acid synthase; Srebf1, Sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 1; Creb1, camp responsive element binding protein 1; Pgc1a, Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, coactivator 1 alpha and Cpt1, Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1a in lean (n= 6), db/db (n= 4), db/db//vegfb +/- (n= 8) and db/db//vegfb -/- (n= 8) mice. #/*P<0.05, ##/**P<0.01, ###/***P<0.001 compared to lean/db/db controls respectively. Values are means ± s.e.m. WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE 5
RESEARCH SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplemental Figure S7. Schematic illustration of the anti-vegf-b administration strategies and validation of the VEGF-B antibody. Analysis of control-treated or 2H10-treated pre-diabetic or diabetic db/db mice. a, Schematic illustration of the timing of the two antibody administration strategies in db/db mice described in this study. Pre-diabetic db/db mice had a starting blood glucose level <14mM, whereas the diabetic animals had blood glucose levels >14mM. b-c, Cardiac mrna expression of Fatp3 and Vegfb in pre-diabetic db/db mice (b, n= 7 controltreated, n= 4 2H10-treated) and diabetic db/db mice (c, n= 4/group) after treatment for 10 weeks. ***P<0.001 as compared to db/db controls. Values are means ± s.e.m 6 WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION RESEARCH Supplemental Figure S8. Pharmacological inhibition of VEGF-B signalling reduces muscular lipid accumulation. Analysis of control-treated or 2H10-treated pre-diabetic or diabetic db/db mice, as compared to lean mice. a-c, Representative images showing staining of neutral lipids with ORO on cardiac (a and c, scale bar 100 μm) and skeletal (b, scale bar 50 μm) muscles from pre-diabetic or diabetic db/db mice after 10 weeks of treatment. Quantifications of the ORO staining are shown in the main Fig. 3c-d. WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE 7
RESEARCH SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplemental Figure S9. Pharmacological inhibition of VEGF-B signalling enhances glucose tolerance and reduces circulating plasma NEFAs and ketones. Analysis of control-treated or 2H10-treated diabetic db/db mice, as compared to lean mice. a, Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) and area under curve (AUC) analysis of untreated lean (n= 6), control-treated (n= 3) or 2H10-treated (n= 3) diabetic db/db mice. b, Plasma levels of TGs (n= 17 lean, n= 3 control-treated, n= 3 2H10-treated), HDL-c and LDL-c (n= 3/group), NEFAs (n= 27 lean, n= 9 controltreated, n= 10 2H10-treated) and ketones (n= 16 lean, n= 9 control-treated, n= 8 2H10-treated). *P<0.05, ##/**P<0.01, ###/***P<0.001 compared to lean/db/db controls respectively. Values are means ± s.e.m 8 WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION RESEARCH Supplemental Figure S10. Pharmacological inhibition of VEGF-B signalling in HFD-fed rats enhances glucose tolerance and does not influence food consumption. Analysis of control-treated or 2H10-treated HFD-fed rats, as compared to control-treated normal diet (ND)-fed rats (n= 9/group). a-b, Blood glucose levels (a) and plasma insulin levels (b) during an IPGTT. The respective AUC analyses are shown to the right. c, Ratio of AUC-glucose to AUC-insulin values for the IPGTT. d, Mean food intake per day. #/*P<0.05, compared to ND-fed/HFD-fed rats respectively. Values are means ± s.e.m. WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE 9
RESEARCH SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplemental Figure S11. Inhibition of VEGF-B signalling improves pancreatic islet morphology but does not affect islet density. Analysis of pre-diabetic (n= 3 control-treated, n= 4 2H10-treated) or diabetic (n= 3/group) db/db mice, as compared to untreated lean mice (n= 7/group). a, Quantification of pancreatic islet density. b-c, Glucagon staining per pancreatic islet (b) and percentage of glucagon-secreting α- cells located within the core of the islets (c). #/*P<0.05, ##/**P<0.0, ###/***P<0.001 as compared to lean/db/db controls respectively. Values are means ± s.e.m. Supplemental Figure S12. Inhibition of VEGF-B signalling halters pancreatic islet apoptosis. Analysis of control-treated or 2H10-treated pre-diabetic or diabetic db/db mice, as compared to untreated lean mice. Representative images of pancreatic islets stained for insulin and cleaved caspase 3. Quantification of caspase 3 staining is shown in Fig. 4e. Scale bars, 100 µm. 10 WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE