Fig. 7. Administration of systemic sFLT3L mitigates DIO, hyperlipidemia, and hepatomegaly.

a WT mice were fed an HFD for 4 weeks and then treated with a hydrodynamic (HD) injection of a plasmid expressing sFlt3L (mflex). b Weight gain (empty vector, n = 18; mflex, n = 20; SD n = 10), eWAT weight (c), liver weight (d), and quantification of the food consumption rate (e) of mice in the indicated groups. Mice treated with mflex or the empty vector were analyzed in metabolic cages for 48 h (n = 8); f energy expenditure (EE, Kcal/h/kg), (g) consumed O₂ volume (VO₂), and expired CO₂ volume (VCO₂) (h), normalized by body weight. The serum concentrations of triglycerides (i), free fatty acids (j), free cholesterol (k), total cholesterol (l), LDL (m), HDL (n), and ALT/GOT (o) of mice in the indicated groups. Two independent experiments out of three were pooled. Body weight gain quantification (empty vector, n = 18; mflex, n = 20; SD n = 5). Significance was assessed by an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001. Significance in (f), (g), and (h) was determined by comparing the AUCs of the light and dark periods. Each point represents a biological replicate. (b, f, g, h) Data are presented as the mean ± SEM, and the same mice were measured repeatedly