Fig. 1

Sex differences in the change in body weight (BW) in response to a high-fat diet (HFD) and antibiotics. a Schematic diagram showing the experimental grouping and timeline of mouse model. The male and female mice were divided into three groups, with two groups pretreated with antibiotics for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks of pretreatment, the mice were administered either a chow diet (CD) or HFD for 12 weeks. Then, the insulin tolerance test was conducted at week 12 and week 16. Fecal samples were collected at week 16, which were used for microbial analysis. b The BWs of different groups changed over time. The BWs of male (&: p < 0.01) and female mice (δ: p < 0.05) pretreated with antibiotics for 4 weeks was higher than the control groups. The BW of male mice began to significantly increase at week_10 after HFD (#: p < 0.05), while the time for female mice was week_14 (@: p < 0.05). The BWs of male and female mice fed either a CD (c) or a HFD (d) were measured at week 16. The body weight gain (e) was also calculated. AHFD group was pretreated with antibiotics for 4 weeks, followed by HFD feeding. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001