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. 2018 Jul 2;13(7):e0199916. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199916

Fig 5. Assessment of liver pathology in C57BL/6 mice at the end of 4 weeks of normal protein diet (NPD, control diet) or low protein diet (LPD, malnutrition diet) feeding during the first burden/malnutrition period, 4 weeks of chow diet feeding during the recovery period, and 16 weeks of chow or HFHC diet feeding during the second burden period.

Fig 5

(A) Mouse livers were weighed ex vivo after each feeding period. Only the NPD/HFHC-fed mice had greater liver weights than the chow diet-fed NPD mice (All data are presented as means ± SD, n ≥ 4 mice per group; *P < 0.05, NS (not significant) P value >0.05, Tukey’s post hoc test, One-way ANOVA). (B) Mouse livers were weighed ex vivo after each feeding period. The liver-to-body weight ratio did not differ between groups (All data are presented as means ± SD, n ≥ 4 mice per group; *P < 0.05, Tukey’s post hoc test, One-way ANOVA). (C) Liver triglycerides levels were determined at sacrifice. LPD-fed mice after 4 weeks had higher triglycerides level in liver than the NPD-fed mice, and the NPD/HFHC-fed as well as LPD/HFHC-fed mice had higher triglycerides levels than the corresponding chow diet-fed control groups. The liver triglyceride levels in the LPD-fed mice were significantly decreased post-recovery as compared with the malnutrition period (All data are presented as means ± SD, n ≥ 4 mice per group, *P < 0.05, ***P<0.001, †††P < 0.001 vs. NPD-fed mice following recovery, §§§P < 0.001 vs. LPD-fed mice following recovery, #P < 0.05 vs. LPD-fed mice at the end of 4 weeks of malnutrition period, Tukey’s post hoc test, One-way ANOVA). (D) Histologic analysis. Hematoxylin-eosin staining of liver paraffin sections show normal histology in NPD-fed as well as LPD-fed mice following recovery and chow diet feeding for 16 weeks; inflammatory infiltrate (black arrow), and microvesicular (arrowhead) and macrovesicular (asterisk) steatosis were observed in NPD-fed and LPD-fed mice following recovery and HFHC diet feeding for 16 weeks; CV, central vein; PT, portal triad (magnification: X10, Bar = 200 μm; X20, Bar = 100 μm; X40, Bar = 50 μm).