Fig. 1: Bacterial depletion ablates the ameliorating effects of DSF on NASH.

a Abx experimental design. WT mice were put on a course of intragastrically Abx administration for 1 week and received an Abx in the drinking water for another 4 weeks. During the 4 weeks, mice were fed a CDAHFD or CDAHFD + DSF. b–d Serum ALT and AST; hepatic TG. e Representative images of gross appearance of the liver histology (1 cm) and photomicrographs of fixed liver sections after staining with H&E (200 μm), ORO (200 μm), α-SMA antibody (200 μm), Masson (200 μm) and F4/80 antibody (50 μm). f Quantification of the liver index (%), NAS, fold change in ORO area, α-SMA-positive area (%), CVF (%) and F4/80-positive cells (%). a–f n = 5 individuals/group for the F4/80 IF staining; n = 10 individuals/group for other experiments. Each point represented an individual mouse. Differences in data were calculated by two-sided Mann–Whitney test or unpaired, two-sided t test depending on the sample distribution type. Data were represented as mean ± SEM. Exact P values were all given. Data were pooled from three independent experiments. Abx antibiotic cocktail, α-SMA α-smooth muscle actin, CVF collagen volume fraction, DSF disulfiram, H&E hematoxylin and eosin, NAS NAFLD activity score, NASH nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, ORO oil red O, TG triglyceride. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.