Quercetin Reverses Cardiac Systolic Dysfunction in Mice Fed with a High-Fat Diet: Role of Angiogenesis

Figure 4

High-fat diet (HFD) elicits lipid accumulation and vascular rarefaction in the myocardium of C57BL/6J mice, which quercetin (Q) alleviated. (a) Accumulation of Oil-red-O-stained lipid droplets in the heart after HFD, which Q blunted. Control+vehicle (CV; ); control+quercetin (CQ; ); high-fat+vehicle (HV; ); high-fat+quercetin (HQ; ); (b) Decreased area of CD31 + staining in the HFD heart was improved by Q. Data are . CV, . CQ, . HV, . HQ, . vs. CV. ^# vs. CQ. ^{^} vs. HV. (c) Expression of angiopoietin and VEGF increased in the HFD myocardium after Q treatment. CV, . CQ, . HV, . HQ, . . (d) Effect of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) and Q on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) tube formation. Representative microphotographs show that Q improved tube formation. vs. control; ^# vs. ox-LDL.

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