Skip to main content
. 2017 Feb 18;8(17):27820–27838. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.15482

Figure 6. The therapeutic effect of GC treatment is associated with alteration in the gut microbiome.

Figure 6

The NAFLD rat model was established with high-fat diet plus DSS treatment for 12 weeks. NAFLD rats were then divided into a control group (N = 7) and a GC treatment group (N = 7). After 13 weeks of GC treatment, animals were sacrificed to evaluate blood biochemistry, liver pathology and liver gene expression. (A) Rats exhibited decreased weight gain 6 weeks after GC treatment. Arrow indicates the start of GC treatment. Plotted values are mean ± SEM. Statistical significance for the difference between GC and control groups is indicated: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. (B) Oil-red O staining revealed reduced fat accumulation and inflammatory foci in the liver of GC-treated rats. Original amplification: 200X. (C) Insulin resistance (IR-HOMA) did not differ between GC and control groups. (D) GC treatment reduced liver triglyceride (TG) content. Reduced mRNA expression was observed for APOA5 (E) and FITM2 (F), both encoding key proteins for lipid droplet biology. Reduced mRNA expression was also observed for genes required for TG synthesis (G, DGAT1; H, DGAT2). GC-treated rats exhibited decreased liver ALT (I) and decreased mRNA expression for proinflammatory cytokine TNF α (J) and chemokine MCP1 (K). GC-treated rats exhibited decreased serum level of LPS (L) and decreased hepatic expression of LPS receptors TLR4 (M) and LBP (N). (O) Weighted UniFrac-based principle coordinates analysis revealed that most of the gut microbiome samples clustered by type of treatment, indicating a distinct population structure for GC-treated samples versus control.