Table 3. Concentrations of lipids, corticosterone and testosterone in male obese and control mice treated with estradiol.

	Sham		Estradiol		Effect of dietP-value	Effect of estradiolP-value	Interaction of effectsP-value
	CON	DIO	CON	DIO
Fasting plasma triglyceride (mmol l−1)	0.55±0.05	0.94±0.09	0.59±0.06	0.81±0.06	0.000024	0.49	0.20
Total plasma cholesterol (mmol l−1)	2.19±0.31	3.59±0.44	2.05±0.22	3.16±0.21	0.00016	0.34	0.62
Hepatic triglyceride (nmol mg−1)	19.0±2.7	48.8±6.9	25.9±2.8	27.9±3.3	0.0005	0.10	0.0019
Nadir plasma corticosterone (nm)	15.3±3.5	17.0±2.9	50.0±11.7	39.6±6.0	0.55	0.00031	0.41
Peak plasma corticosterone (nm)	148.7±18.1	178.9±24.5	240.2±35.5	173.1±30.6	0.52	0.14	0.09
Plasma estradiol (pg ml−1)	2.5±0.4	2.0±0.3	6.9±1.2	21.6±4.7	0.09	<0.000001	0.011
Plasma testosterone (ng ml−1)	2.5±1.3	2.2±1.4	0.4±0.1	0.5±0.2	0.703	0.021	0.95

Male mice were fed control (CON) or obesogenic (DIO) diets from 5 weeks of age and at 6 weeks of age underwent implantation of a continuous release 17β-estradiol pellet (estradiol) or sham surgery (sham). Plasma lipid and corticosterone levels were measured in samples taken during metabolic tests. Hepatic triglyceride was analyzed in post-mortem tissue. Data are mean±s.e.m., analyzed by two-way analysis of variance, plasma estradiol concentrations were log transformed before analysis. n=11 per sham group, 12 per estradiol group.