Trophoblasts are the placental cells which provide the major source of nutrients for the growing embryos. In a transformed trophoblast cell line, BeWo cells, human resistin treatment also decreased the PGC-1α protein abundance (Fig. 5a) and its mRNA expression (Fig. 5b). In addition, the protein level of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) was decreased by resistin treatment (Fig. 5a). Resistin also inhibited cellular ATP production (Fig. 5d), further demonstrating the influence of resistin on mitochondrial energy metabolism.