Figure 4.

Gut Microbiota and Dietary Lipid Interact to Regulate WAT Inflammation Independent of Body Weight and Adipocyte Size

(A) Body weight gain of CONV-R and GF mice fed lard or fish oil for 11 weeks. ns = 34 (CONV-R lard), 19 (GF lard), 34 (CONV-R fish oil), and 18 (GF fish oil).

(B) Initial and final body weight of mice used for analysis of WAT inflammation (n = 6).

(C) Distribution of adipocyte sizes in mice used for analysis of inflammation and metabolic perturbations. ns = 4 (CONV-R lard), 5 (GF lard), 6 (CONV-R fish oil), and 6 (GF fish oil).

(D) Representative Mac-2 immunostaining of WAT from CONV-R and GF mice fed lard or fish oil. Scale bars, 100 μm.

(E) Quantification of CLS (n = 6 mice per group).

(F) Percentage of area occupied by CD45⁺ cells in WAT from CONV-R and GF mice fed lard or fish oil (n = 5–6 mice per group).

(G) Principal-component analysis of global gene expression in WAT from CONV-R and GF mice fed lard or fish oil (n = 6 mice per group).

(H) Genes that are regulated by the interaction between diet and gut microbiota. WAT genes induced by the gut microbiota in mice fed lard are plotted on the y axis, and WAT genes induced by the gut microbiota in mice fed fish oil are plotted on the x axis (n = 6 mice per group). Interaction was determined by two-way ANOVA.

Means ± SEM are plotted. ^∗p < 0.05; ^∗∗p < 0.01; ^∗∗∗p < 0.001.