Figure 2.

Corticosterone add-on treatment reverses dexamethasone-induced fat mass loss. Mice received a high-fat diet mixed with dexamethasone (DEX) or vehicle (VEH) and were subcutaneously implanted with low-dose (5 mg) corticosterone (CORT) or vehicle pellets for 3.5 weeks. (A–C) DEX decreased body weight, fat and lean mass, while DEX + CORT prevented the effects on body weight and fat mass. Asterisks show results of post-hoc comparisons with VEH, hash marks of post-hoc comparisons with the DEX. (D, E) DEX increased 6 h-fasted glucose and insulin levels after 23 days, while DEX + CORT aggravated this effect. (F) At AM, DEX induced a more rapid plasma clearance of intravenously injected [¹⁴C]-deoxyglucose, which was prevented by DEX + CORT. (G) DEX + CORT increased [¹⁴C]-deoxyglucose uptake in interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT). (H) 4 h-fasted plasma free fatty acid levels were unaffected in all treatment groups. (I, J) DEX + CORT increased 4 h-fasted plasma triglyceride levels and hepatic expression of Mttp but not Apob. (K) DEX + CORT increased liver weight. (L) DEX induced a more rapid plasma clearance of intravenously injected triglyceride-rich lipoprotein-like particles containing glycerol tri[³H]oleate. (M) DEX and DEX + CORT similarly increased the uptake [³H]oleate in BAT and white adipose tissue (WAT) depots. (N) Upon an oral lipid bolus, DEX strongly reduced peak plasma triglyceride levels. Statistical significance was calculated using 2-way ANOVA analysis in (D, E, G–K, M); with 3-way ANOVA analysis in (F, L); with linear mixed models in (A–C, N). Depicted below the graphs are the P-values of the ANOVA tests for either time (T), CORT (C), DEX (D) or the interaction between CORT and DEX (I). *P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. 'ns' means 'not significant'.