Fig. 3

Gut microbiota mediate the therapeutic effects of CQA treatment. The mice were fed a HFD for 8 weeks and then gavaged with vehicle or CQA (150 mg/kg) together with an antibiotics cocktail in drinking water for 8 weeks. a Body weight of microbiota-reduced mice. b Fat mass. c GTT and AUC. d Hepatic triglyceride. e Hepatic T-CHO. f Hepatic mRNA expression of lipid synthesis related genes. g Core temperature. h Relative mRNA expression of thermogenic genes in iWAT and BAT. i–j Representative UCP1 staining of iWAT sections (i) and BAT sections (j), scale bar: 50 μm. The mice were fed a HFD for 8 weeks and then treated twice per week as recipient mice with fecal microbiota from vehicle-treated or CQA-treated DIO mice for another 8 weeks. k Body weight of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) mice. (l) GTT and AUC. m Hepatic triglyceride. n Hepatic T-CHO. o Hepatic mRNA expression of lipid synthesis-related genes. p Representative H&E staining (upper) and Oil red O staining (lower) of liver sections, scale bar: 50 μm. Lipids were stained positive (red color) with Oil red O, and quantified by Image J software. q Core temperature in FMT mice. r Relative mRNA expression of thermogenic genes in iWAT and BAT of FMT mice. s Representative UCP1 staining of iWAT sections (upper) and BAT sections (lower), scale bar: 50 μm. a–p n = 8/group. q–s n = 4/group. Data are presented as mean ± SD. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; and ***p < 0.001. ns means not statistically significant