Fig. 2: Hepatocyte-specific knockout of Cdo1 (Cdo1^LKO) impairs exercise-mediated alleviation of fatty liver in mice.

a Scatter diagram indicating the relative Cdo1 gene expression level in the high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice group relative to the normal chow diet (CD)-fed controls from the GEO database in a microarray assay (n = 14 mice in CD group, and n = 18 mice in HFD group). b Scatter diagram indicating the relative CDO1 gene expression level in patients with non-NAFLD people and NAFLD patients from the GEO database in high-throughput RNA sequencing (n = 14 individuals in non-NAFLD group, and n = 15 individuals in NAFLD group). c 6-week-old male mice were fed CD or HFD for 16 weeks before being sacrificed. The mice liver lysates were analyzed by western blotting (n = 4 mice per group). d 6-week-old Cdo1^flox/flox (WT) and Cdo1^LKO male mice were fed HFD for 16 weeks, with or without exercise in the last 8 weeks. The intervention program is illustrated. The representing mouse model was created using BioRender.com. e–n Mice were treated as described in d before being sacrificed for analysis (n = 6 mice per group). e Mice liver weights. f Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and Oil Red O staining of liver sections. Experiments were performed 3 times and similar results were obtained. Scale bars, 50 μm. g, h Triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol (TC) levels in mice livers, respectively. i Glucose tolerance test (GTT) was performed in mice under 14 weeks of HFD feeding. j Analysis of the GTT data in i, with subtraction of the basal glucose to generate an area of the curve (AOC). k Insulin tolerance test (ITT) was performed in mice fed with HFD for 15 weeks. l Analysis of the ITT data in k with AOC. m, n Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in mice, respectively. Unpaired two-tailed t tests were performed in a and b; two-way analysis of variance plus Tukey’s post hoc tests were performed in e, g, h, j and l–n. All data show the means ± SD. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.