Improvement of Endothelial Dysfunction of Berberine in Atherosclerotic Mice and Mechanism Exploring through TMT-Based Proteomics

Figure 1

Berberine reduced serum lipid levels and antagonized hepatic lipid accumulation in ApoE^-/- mice. Male wild-type C57BL/6 mice fed a normal chow diet and ApoE^-/- mice fed a western-type diet in the presence and absence of berberine (78 and 156 mg·kg^-1) or the presence of atorvastatin were administered by oral gavage for 12 weeks. (a) Body weight changes during the 12-week treatment ( in the WT, ApoE^-/-, ATO, and BBR-156 mg·kg^-1 groups; in the BBR-78 mg·kg^-1 group). (b) Body weight at 12 weeks of administration ( in the WT, ApoE^-/-, ATO, and BBR-156 mg·kg^-1 groups; in the BBR-78 mg·kg^-1 group). (c) Mice photos. (d–h) Serum levels of FFA, TG, TC, HDL-C, and LDL-C (). (i) Liver index ( in the WT, ApoE^-/-, ATO, and BBR-156 mg·kg^-1 groups; in the BBR-78 mg·kg^-1 group). (j) Liver photos. (k) Representative photomicrographs of H&E (top) and Oil Red O (bottom) staining of liver; magnification: 400x. The red arrow shows steatosis, and the green arrow shows inflammatory cell infiltrations in the liver. Data are shown as . versus WT and versus ApoE^-/-. WT: wild-type; BBR: berberine; ATO: atorvastatin; FFA: free fatty acids; TG: triglyceride; TC: total cholesterol; HDL-C: high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL-C: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

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