Fig. 1

Evaluation of the impact of a high-fat diet on the expression of markers of blood-brain barrier, inflammation, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the circumventricular organs. In most of the experiments in this study, 6-week-old male Swiss mice were randomly divided to feed on chow or a high-fat diet (HFD) for 1, 2, or 4 weeks; at the end of the respective experimental periods, the mice were used in experiments: laser microdissection (LCM) of the circumventricular organs (CVO) for real-time PCR determination of specific transcripts, immunofluorescence staining of specific markers, FITC-dextran injection for evaluation of BBB integrity, and transmission electron microscopy (a). b–e schematic illustrations of the regions submitted to LCM for harvesting of specimens from CVOs. f Real-time determination of the relative expression of transcripts of markers of the BBB in the distinct CVOs. g Real-time determination of the relative expression of transcripts of cytokines in the distinct CVOs. h Real-time determination of the relative expression of transcript of BDNF in the distinct CVOs. In f–h, expression of target transcripts is presented as relative to paired controls fed chow (line in y = 1). In all experiments n = 4; *p < 0.05 vs. respective control. BBB blood-brain barrier, BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor, CVO circumventricular organs, HFD high-fat diet, LCM laser microdissection, ME median eminence, SCO subcomissural organ, SFO subfornical organ, TEM transmission electron microscopy, OVLT vascular organ of the lamina terminalis, wk week