Fig. 5

Morphological alteration of microglia in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus was induced by intermittent LPS administration into HFD-fed mice. a Brain tissue sections containing the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) were prepared from animals from the four groups after feeding for 5 months and then subjected to Iba1 immunofluorescence (red) and DAPI nuclear counterstaining (blue). Representative active microglia with hypertrophic shapes are indicated by arrowheads. Arrows indicate microglia with a small size and fine processes in the HFD-LPS group. b The number of Iba1⁺ microglia accumulated in the ARC (per mm²) in the four groups was quantified. In addition, the average cell body size of ARC microglia was measured. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 12 tissue sections from 3 animals from each group). **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 versus the chow-saline group; ^#p < 0.05, ^###p < 0.001 versus the HFD-LPS group. Scale bar in A = 50 μm