Figure 6.

Obesity-induced LV remodeling is not associated with cardiac inflammation. WT, Nlrp3^−/−, and Asc^−/− (Pycard^−/−) male mice were exposed to high fat diet (HFD; 60 cal% fat) or control diet for 52 weeks and cardiac inflammation was evaluated. (A) Representative images of Mac-2 positive macrophages (arrows) in left ventricle (LV) from a WT mouse on control diet and HFD. Scale bar: 100 μm. (B) Quantification of Mac-2 positive areas in LV. LV gene expression, of (C) interleukin (IL)-1β mRNA, (D) IL-18, (E) tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and (F) NLRP3, presented relative to levels of GAPDH mRNA. WT: Control, n = 10; HFD, n = 10, Nlrp3^−/−: Control, n = 7; HFD, n = 7, and Asc^−/− (Pycard^−/−): Control, n = 7; HFD, n = 7. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. ^*P < 0.05 vs. control diet; ^#P < 0.05 vs. WT-HFD as determined by two-way ANOVA and Tukey's multiple comparisons test.