Figure 1.

High fat diet (HFD) increases EAE severity in HLA-DR3 transgenic mice. (A) Model diagram representing day of diet initiation, EAE induction and disease scoring in HLA-DR3 transgenic mice. 6-8 weeks old HLA-DR3 transgenic mice were kept on Normal Chow (n= 6) and HFD (n= 7) for eight weeks. Mice were immunized with PLP_91-110/CFA and pertussis toxin at days 0 and 2 to induce EAE. Mice were monitored for EAE disease progression before euthanizing on day 25 post-immunization. (B) Average clinical EAE scores from mice in A, acquired over time. (C) Cumulative EAE scores from mice in A. (D) Percent survival of mice in (A), Data are representative of 3 independent experiments with 3-5 mice per group. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean for each experimental group. p-value was determined by 2-way ANOVA Sidak multiple comparisons test (B), and Mann-Whitney test between the experimental groups (C).