Fig 6. Assessment of liver gene expression 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.

Hepatic mRNA levels of the proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-1β, MCP-1), inflammasome component (NLRP3), and markers of inflammatory cells (CD68, F4/80) were measured by real-time RT-PCR and expressed in relative expression units to 18S ribosomal RNA (All data are presented as means ± SEM, n ≥ 4 mice per group, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, Student's t-test).