Fig. 3

An HSD triggers monocyte expansion and systemic inflammation. a Flow cytometry dot plots of the frequency and the quantitative analysis of the absolute number showed a significant increase of CD11b⁺CD115⁺ monocytes in the blood of HSD mice. Such increase remained elevated even after returning to a ND, n = 10–14/group. b Flow cytometry dot plots of the frequency and the quantitative analysis of the absolute number showed a significant increase of CCR2⁺Ly6C^hi inflammatory subset in the blood of HSD mice. Such increase remained elevated even after returning to a ND, n = 10–14/group. c The mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory molecules, IL-1β, IL-6, and CCR2 at 1 month and 3 months of HSD feeding was determined by qPCR, n = 6–8/group. d A representative flow cytometry histogram showed the percentage of Ki67⁺CD11b⁺CD115⁺ monocytes in the blood of HSD/ND-fed mice. A quantitative analysis of absolute cell counts showed that HSD did not induce significant increases of cell proliferation, while due to the increase of total monocyte number, the percentage of Ki67⁺ monocytes was lower in the HSD group, n = 3–4/group. All data was presented as mean ± SEM, two-way ANOVA followed by the Bonferroni post-tests for a, b, un-paired t test for c, d, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001