Figure 4.

Immune metabolic phenotype of Mrc1^−/− mice and WT mice fed an HFD for 20 weeks. (A) Weekly body weight during 20 weeks of high-fat diet feeding for WT and Mrc1^−/− mice; (B) area under the curve AUC and (C) organ/tissue weight distribution of the VAT, SCAT, BAT, and liver from WT and Mrc1^−/− mice. (D) Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections from left to right of visceral, subcutaneous, and brown adipose tissues from WT (first row) and Mrc1^−/− mice (second row). The mean area as um² of adipocytes within the VAT (E) and SCAT (F) for both experimental groups are presented. (G) Gene expression analysis of Ppara, Pgc1a, Atgl, Ucp1 in BAT from Mrc1^−/− normalized to that of WT. Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections of the liver from both experimental groups (H) and the prevalence of liver steatosis (I) are shown. (J) Dot plot showing fold of enrichment (x-axis) and the –log₁₀ p-value (y-axis) of enriched pathways following KEGG database analysis. Hierarchical clustering and heatmap showing relative protein expression values (Z-score transformed LFQ protein intensities) for proteins with significantly different expression in WT and Mrc1^−/− mice (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD (K) and other relevant pathways (L),FDR < 0.05). (M) Glucose tolerance test (GTT) performed at 20 weeks of HFD feeding in WT and Mrc1^−/− mice and calculated AUC. (N) Insulin tolerance test (ITT) performed at 20 weeks of HFD feeding in WT and Mrc1^−/− mice and calculated AUC. Blood glucose levels are shown. Glycaemia was measured before i.p. glucose or insulin injection (t = 0, baseline values) and after 20, 40, 60, and 120 min. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM, n = 8–10 mice per group. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.