Fig. 1

Characteristics of male LEV rats in the study. Six-month-old LEV rats were divided into two groups of 8 animals each. One group was fed a control diet (CD) (solid white bars or squares) and the other group was fed a high-fat diet (HFD (solid black bars or squares) continuously. (a) Mean food uptake of LEV rats in the course of the study. (b) Weight increase of LEV rats in the course of the study. (c) Mean grip strength of 18-month-old LEV rats. (d) The mean number of 200 ± 10% fibers was measured using HE-stained sections of the musculus vastus lateralis in 18-month-old LEV rats (right panel). The relative mean cross-sectional area (CSA) of the musculus vastus lateralis compared to body weight (left panel). Statistical significance (HFD vs. CD, at each time point) was determined using two-way t-tests and is denoted by * for p ≤ 0.05, ** for p ≤ 0.01 or *** for p ≤ 0.001