Table 2. Effects of nuciferine on scores for hepatic steatosis and necroinflammation.

	ND	HFD	HFNL	HFNH
Steatosis	0.0±0.0a	3.1±0.6b	1.9±0.7bc	1.3±0.5ac
Necroinflammation	0.0±0.0a	0.8±0.4b	0.5±0.5ab	0.2±0.4a

The severity of hepatic steatosis and necroinflammation were scored as following: In brief, liver tissues were scored for hepatic steatosis (0, none; 1, 1–25%; 2, 26–50%; 3, 51–75%; and 4, 76–100% hepatocytes affected) and necroinflammation (0, no inflammation; 1, mild lobular/portal inflammation; 2, moderate lobular/portal inflammation; 3, severe lobular/portal inflammation). Values of hepatic steatosis and necroinflammation are expressed as the means±SD, n = 10 hamsters in each group. The Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison post-test was used for the analysis of the degree of liver steatosis and inflammation. ND: normal diet group, HFD: high-fat diet group, HFNL: low dosage nuciferine group (HFD+10 mg/kg·BW/day), HFNH: high dosage nuciferine group (HFD+15 mg/kg·BW/day). a, b, c: Means in the same row with different online letters differ significantly, p<0.05.