Quercetin Protects against Obesity-Induced Skeletal Muscle Inflammation and Atrophy

Figure 1

Effect of quercetin on obesity-induced inflammatory responses in skeletal muscle. Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were fed a regular diet (RD), a high-fat diet (HFD), or an HFD supplemented with 0.05% quercetin (HFD/Q0.05) or 0.1% quercetin (HFD/Q0.1) for 9 weeks. ((a), (c), (e)) qRT-PCR analysis of cytokine transcripts (TNFα and MCP-1), macrophage markers (F4/80 and CD68), and inflammatory receptors (4-1BB and TLR4) in gastrocnemius muscle. mRNA levels were normalized to the levels of β-actin gene. (b) Protein levels of cytokines TNFα, MCP-1 measured by ELISA. (d) CD68 and α-tubulin were determined by Western blotting. The intensities of the bands were measured densitometrically using ImageJ software. Data are means ± SEM of 6 animals per group. and between the HFD and RD groups; and between the HFD/Q0.05, HFD/Q0.1 groups and the HFD group.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)