Exercise-responsive skeletal muscle genes mechanistically linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Figure 8 Expression of genetic biomarkers in high-fat diet-induced metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease combined with endurance exercise. A: Body weight changes in mice subjected to 14 weeks of high-fat diet (HFD) followed by 10 weeks of endurance exercise. Measurements were taken before and after the exercise intervention, n ≥ 5; B and C: Serum total cholesterol (TC) (B) and triglyceride (TG) (C) levels in HFD mice with no exercise (HFD-Sed) and HFD with exercise (HFD-Train), n ≥ 5; D and E: Liver TC (D) and TG (E) levels in mice with HFD-Sed and HFD-Train group, n ≥ 5; F: Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin staining and oil red O staining of liver sections. Scale bars, 100 μm; G: The messenger RNA levels of Lama4, Pecam1, Pxdn and Thbs4 in gastrocnemius muscle of HFD-Sed and HFD-Train mice were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Actb was used as an internal control, n ≥ 5; H-K: Western blot analysis to assess the protein expression levels of laminin subunit α 4 (H), platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM1) (I), peroxidasin (J), thrombospondin 4 (THBS4) (K), n ≥ 4; L and M: The serum level of PECAM1 (L) and THBS4 (M) were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, n ≥ 5. ^aP < 0.05. ^bP < 0.01. ^cP < 0.001. HFD: High-fat diet; HFD-Sed: High-fat diet with no exercise; HFD-Train: High-fat diet with exercise; TC: Total cholesterol; TG: Triglyceride; HE: Hematoxylin and eosin; mRNA: Messenger RNA; LAMA4: Laminin subunit α 4; PECAM1: Platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1; PXDN: Peroxidasin; THBS4: Thrombospondin 4.