Fig. 1: HFD-induced obesity accelerates tumour development and disturbs organism homeostasis.

A Schematic of the experimental timeline for CD-fed and HFD-fed mice (n = 8 mice/group). B Body weight curves and comparison of body weights at the 16th week. C Serum TC, TG, HDL and LDL levels after 8 h of fasting. D Blood glucose levels after 8 h of fasting. E Blood glucose levels before and after the OGTT (2 g/kg mouse) and the AUC of the OGTT. F Wet weights of eWAT and liver at the end of the experiment. G Representative images of livers stained with H&E (scale bar = 100 µm) and the lipid area, calculated as % -AOI in liver cross-sections stained with H&E. H Macroscopic representation, tumour growth curve and tumour mass of Hepa1-6 tumours. I Immunoblot analysis of the relative protein expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2, p-STAT3, t-STAT3, p-AKT, AKT, Caspase-3, and cleaved Caspase-3 in Hepa1-6 tumour tissues. Column plots depicting the relative band intensity ratios of Bax/Bcl-2, phospho/total STAT3, phospho/total AKT, and cleaved/total Caspase-3 in Western blots. J Alpha diversity (Chao1 richness index) and beta diversity (weighted UniFrac distance matrix) of the faecal microbiota in CD- and HFD-fed mice. K LEfSe results showing bacteria with significant differences in abundance between CD- and HFD-fed mice. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, and ns not significant, CD control diet, HFD high-fat diet, TC total cholesterol, TG triglyceride, HDL high-density lipoprotein, LDL low-density lipoprotein, OGTT oral glucose tolerance test, AUC area under curve, eWAT epididymal white adipose tissue, H&E haematoxylin and eosin, AOI area of interest, LEfSe linear discriminant analysis effect size.