Fig. 3

Biochemical and histological characteristics of livers. Hepatic lipid content (a and b), histological scoring of liver sections in accordance to [24] (c-f) and representative liver sections for control/vHS (g and i) and HFD (h and j). The arrow head and arrow indicates inflammatory cells and fibrosis, respectively. Hepatic cholesterol was increased by high-fat feeding at 16 and 25 weeks (a), while hepatic triglycerides were significantly increased in HFD groups after 25 weeks compared to control (b). Compared to control and vHS, HFD groups had grade 3 hepatic steatosis after 16 weeks, which persisted until the end of the study at 25 weeks (c, g and h). Similarly, high-fat diet induced progressive inflammation (d), hepatocyte ballooning (e) and fibrosis (f, i and j). Geometric means with 95 % confidence interval (a), means with SD (b) and medians with range (c-f). Scale bar 50 μm (f and g) and 100 μm (h and i), n = 6–7 (HFvHS n = 6 for histology at week 16 due to technical difficulties). HFD vs. Control: **** p < 0.0001 ** p < 0.01 * p < 0.05. HFD vs. vHS: #### p < 0.0001 ## p < 0.01 # p < 0.05