Testosterone Deficiency Promotes Hypercholesteremia and Attenuates Cholesterol Liver Uptake via AR/PCSK9/LDLR Pathways

Figure 1

Metabolic characteristics of sham-operated (SHAM), subtotal orchiectomized (SO) and orchiectomized (ORX) rats. (a) Serum testosterone level six weeks after operations. Rats in SO and ORX groups displayed markedly reduced testosterone levels as expected. Testosterone level of rats in ORX group were all under the lower limit of the measurement (b) Food intake of the rats during the experimentation. (c) The body weight alteration of rats within 20 weeks. (d) Representative graphs of computed tomography (CT) scanning and three-dimensional reconstructed models (yellow: subcutaneous fat; red: visceral fat) of SHAM, SO and ORX group. Volume of subcutaneous and visceral fat are analyzed from the images. Black and white arrows indicates visceral and subcutaneous fat of SHAM, SO and ORX rats respectively. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Statistical analyses are unpaired t-test or one-way ANOVA. ; ; ; ns: non-significant.

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