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Fig. 3 | BMC Research Notes

Fig. 3

From: Regular exposure to non-burning ultraviolet radiation reduces signs of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mature adult mice fed a high fat diet: results of a pilot study

Fig. 3

Regular exposure to UVR suppressed the development of signs of NAFLD in mature adult mice. In a, representative liver sections from mock- (n = 4) or UVR- (n = 3) treated mice are shown, which were stained with H&E or Masson’s Trichrome, with a black arrow identifying steatosis (H&E), and a blue arrow indicating fibrosis (collagen stained blue, Masson’s) around a blood vessel (×20 magnification). Livers were dissected from euthanised mice at end of the experiment. In b, histopathological grading scores are shown were for the extent of steatosis (/6), fibrosis (/4) and both combined (/10). In c, plasma levels of ALT, AST, glucose, triglyceride, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol measured at the end of the experiment. In d, the number of inflammatory foci (identified by the presence of tight bundles of eosinophilic-staining and multi-nucleated cells, black arrow) were counted per field (×20 magnification) and averaged per mouse liver section stained with H&E. In e, tnf, tgfß1, fatp2 and fasN mRNAs were measured in the livers of these mature mice (41 weeks old at the end of the study) with eef1α used as the housekeeping control. In f, tnf, tgfß1, fatp2 and fasN mRNAs were measured in the livers of 20 week-old mice previously fed a high fat diet (HFD) or low fat diet for 12 weeks (from 8 weeks of age) with some exposed to low dose UVR and all other mice ‘mock-treated’, twice a week throughout this feeding period (n = 14–15/treatment). All values are expressed as the mean + SEM, with (*) denoting a significant difference between treatments (*p < 0.05, ***p = 0.0001)

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