ERN1 and Insulin resistance: To investigate whether the STF amelioration of insulin resistance and obesity reflects on its inhibition of IRE1α activity in adipose tissue, we examined the status of IRE1α-mediated Xbp1 mRNA splicing in WAT from STF-treated DIO mice and observed that as assessed by RT-PCR followed by electrophoretic separation, the level of spliced Xbp1 (Xbp1s) mRNA was significantly reduced in both eWAT (Figure 1G–G’) and iWAT (Figure 1—figure supplement 1E-E’’) from STF-treated animals relative to vehicle group.