Fig. 1

Treatment with naringenin (Nar) reverses fatty liver and early-stage liver damage in HBx-transgenic mice. a Schematic timeline of the treatment protocol. Animals were genotyped at 3 weeks of age. Starting at 4 weeks of age, HBX-transgenic mice (n = 5 per group) were dosed by 14 days of once-daily oral gavage with Nar (30 mg/kg) or an equivalent volume of vehicle (phosphate-buffered saline, PBS); wild-type (WT) littermates (n = 5) were dosed on the same schedule with vehicle. b Representative micrographs of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) –stained sections of liver sections from a vehicle-dosed WT mouse (i), a vehicle-dosed HBx-transgenic mouse (ii), and a Nar-dosed HBx-transgenic mouse (iii), or representative micrographs of Oil red-O–stained sections of liver sections from animals of the same groups [(iv), (v), and (vi), respectively]. Original magnification, H&E 200×, oil red-O staining, 400×. c The levels of serum parameters for liver function [alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (i) and aspartate aminotransferase AST (ii)], renal function [blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (iii) and creatinine (Cre) (iv)], and lipid chemistry [total cholesterol (CHOL) (v) and triglycerides (TG) (vi)] were measured in vehicle-dosed WT mice, vehicle-dosed HBx-transgenic mice, and Nar-dosed HBx-transgenic mice. Values are expressed as mean ± SD. #, p < 0.05 between vehicle-treated WT and HBx-transgenic mice, *, p < 0.05 between HBx-transgenic vehicle- and Nar-treated mice