*4.1. Animals*

Six-week-old c57/bl6 male mice were purchased from Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All mice were housed in a normal environment and were provided with food and water. The methods were carried out in accordance with approved guidelines from Huazhong Agricultural University and the scientific, ethical, and legal principles of the Hubei Regulations for the Administration of A ffairs Concerning Experimental Animals. All of the experimental protocols were subject to approval by the Ethics Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAUMU2013-0005). The mice were fed with either a methionine-choline-deficient diet (MCDD) or a high-fat diet (HFD) to make a NAFLD phenotype in liver tissue. The mice were divided into nine groups, which were fed with MCDD for 0 week (control groups), 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, and HFD for 10 weeks. The control groups of mice were fed with chow diet.
