The transcriptional regulation of inflammation genes in progressively obese and insulin-resistant mice. Time is shown as weeks on diet. (a) Changes in body weight, fasting blood glucose, and fasting plasma insulin over 26 weeks on diets. *Statistically significant difference (P < 0.05, Student’s t test). (b) mRNA expression of ADAM8, MIP-1 For comparison, the expression level of these genes in lean mice was arbitrarily set at 1; error bars represent ± SE. C57BL/6J mice were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory and started on diets of 10% fat (low fat; LF) or 60% fat (high fat; HF) (Research Diets Inc.) at 4 weeks of age (0-week time point). Animals were sacrificed after the specified number of weeks on the diet (0 weeks, n = 10 per group; 3 weeks, n = 3 per group; 6 weeks, n = 10 per group; 8 weeks, n = 3 per group; 11 weeks, n = 3 per group; 16 weeks, n = 10 per group; 26 weeks, n = 10 per group). y axes show arbitrary units representing relative expression levels of mRNAs.