Fig. 7: miR-145@tar-lip efficiently attenuates HFD-induced obesity in middle-aged mice.

a Schematic diagram of the mouse treatments. b Body weight gain of middle-aged mice treated with PBS, NC miR@tar-lip, miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip (n = 7 per group). c Energy expenditure of mice treated with miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip (n = 4 per group). GTT (d) and ITT (e) of results for middle-aged mice treated with PBS, NC miR@tar-lip, miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip (n = 7 per group). f Western blot results of p-AKT^Ser473/AKT in eWAT, liver and skeletal muscle from the indicated groups (n = 3 independent experiments). g Macrophage infiltration (green color) and crown-like structures (CLSs, arrows) in eWAT of mice treated with PBS, NC miR@tar-lip, miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip and the statistics for the CLSs (n = 7 biological replicates per group). Scale bar, 25 µm. h Flow cytometry analysis of M1 (CD11b⁺/F4/80⁺/CD11c⁺/CD206^-) and M2 (CD11b⁺/F4/80⁺/CD11c^-/CD206⁺) macrophage subsets in eWAT of mice treated with PBS, NC miR@tar-lip, miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip (n = 7 biological replicates per group). i RT‒qPCR results for the proinflammatory genes Tnf-α, Il-1β, and Il-6 in eWAT of mice treated with PBS, NC miR@tar-lip, miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip (n = 7 biological replicates per group). j, k Protein expression of p19^ARF and p53 (n = 4 biological replicates per group) (j) and the mRNA levels of p16^Ink4a, p19^Arf, and p21 (k) in eWAT of mice treated with PBS, NC miR@tar-lip, miR-145@lip or miR-145@tar-lip (n = 7 biological replicates per group). l Representative β-gal staining of iWAT and eWAT from the indicated groups. The data were presented as mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was assessed by two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test (b, left panels in d and e), two-sided ANCOVA with body weight as co-variate (left panel in c), two-sided Student’s t test (right panel in c), or one-way ANOVA (i, k, right panels in d, e, g, h, j), and p values indicate statistical significance. See also Supplementary Fig. 9 and Supplementary Fig. 10. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.