Fig. 6

Microglial activation in the BLA and NAc was attenuated by intermittent LPS administration and chronic HFD feeding. a Brain tissue sections containing the BLA or NAc were prepared from animals from the four groups after feeding for 5 months (Fig. 1a) 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 BLA or NAc (per mm²) in the four groups was quantified. In addition, the average cell body size of microglia in the two regions was measured. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 12 tissue sections from 3 animals from each group). ***p < 0.001 versus the chow-saline group; ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 versus the HFD-LPS group. Scale bar in A = 50 μm