Fig. 5

Verification of perturbations in steroidogenic pathways in the hypothalamus of LPS-induced depressive-like female mice. A, B Heatmap (A) and scatter plot (B) of the detected steroid metabolites in the hypothalamus of LPS-induced depressive-like mice and sex-matched controls. A Raw measurement mean was converted into z-scores, with downregulation denoted by blue, and upregulation indicated by red. B Relative levels of steroid metabolites were determined by comparing them to the raw measurement mean of the CON-Male group. C Metabolite–protein interaction network of the steroid biosynthesis pathway, according to the KEGG annotations. Differential steroids between LPS-Female and CON-Female mice are labelled with red (increased) and green (decreased) in the network, and essential proteins and unchanged steroid metabolites are designated. D, E mRNA transcriptional (D) and protein (E) levels of the key proteins involved in steroidogenic pathways, n = 6 (D) and n = 4 (E) mice/group. All data are presented as means ± SEM and were analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni's post hoc tests. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001