*4.12. Statistical Analysis*

The results were expressed as the means ± SD and analyzed with GraphPad Prism 8 software (San Diego, CA, USA). One-way ANOVA analysis of variance was used to compare the variance between different groups. Differences were considered statistically significant when the value of *p* was <0.05.

#### **5. Conclusions**

In summary, astaxanthin protected LPS-induced DCs and LPS-challenged mice from oxidative stress via the HO-1/Nrf2 axis to achieve overloaded inflammatory control. These data indicate that astaxanthin is a potential candidate drug that could be applied to treat various inflammatory diseases.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.Y. and C.L.; methodology, Y.Y., N.X., T.Q., and B.M.; software, Y.Y., B.Z., and Y.S.; validation, Y.Y., X.Z., and Z.X.; formal analysis, Y.Y., N.X., and C.L.; investigation, Y.Y., N.X., and T.Q.; resources, Y.Y. and C.L.; data curation, Y.Y. and N.X.; writing original draft preparation, Y.Y., C.L., and T.Q.; writing—review and editing, Y.Y., T.Q., and C.L.; visualization, Y.Y. and N.X.; supervision, Y.Y., T.Q., and C.L.; project administration, Y.Y. and C.L.; funding acquisition, Y.Y., C.L., and T.Q. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600113, 31800284), the Agricultural Science & Technology Independent Innovation Fund of Jiangsu Province (CX(20)3092), the 2020 Interdisciplinary Project of Yangzhou University Veterinary Special Zone (yzuxk202004), the Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (BK20200105), a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education (PAPD), and the Open Project Program of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Zoonosis (R1909).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of Jiangsu Laboratory Animal Welfare and Ethical Committee, and approved by the Jiangsu Administrative Committee of Laboratory Animals (permission number: SYXK(SU)2017-0044).

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
