Shen-Hong-Tong-Luo Formula Attenuates Macrophage Inflammation and Lipid Accumulation through the Activation of the PPAR-γ/LXR-α/ABCA1 Pathway

Figure 8

SHTL pretreatment attenuates LPS- and Ox-LDL-induced lipid accumulation via the activation of the PPAR-γ/LXR-α/ABCA1 pathway in mouse peritoneal macrophages. (a–c) After LPS incubation for 8 h, MPMs were treated with SHTL for 24 h prior to GW9662 treatment for 1 h. The lipid accumulation in MPMs was detected by DiI-Ox-LDL staining using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy imaging (). The quantification of DiI-Ox-LDL fluorescence in different groups is shown. (d) THP-1-derived macrophages were pretreated as mentioned above. Cholesterol efflux was expressed as the percentage of fluorescence in the medium relative to total fluorescence. (e) The LXR-α and ABCA1 mRNA levels in LPS- and Ox-LDL-induced MPMs treated with SHTL and/or GW9662 for 24 h were detected by qPCR analysis. β-Actin was used for the normalization. (f, g) The protein levels of LXR-α and ABCA1 in macrophages from different groups were detected by Western blot analysis. Bar graphs show the relative expressions of LXR-α and ABCA1 from (f). β-Actin was the loading control. and versus the Ctrl group; ^# and ^## versus the Ox-LDL group; ^& and ^&& versus the SHTL group, .

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