Fig. 2

Dietary inulin supplementation altered microglia proportion and neuronal cholesterol biosynthesis in the forebrain region. A UMAP of all cell types in the forebrain region of Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD mice. B Violin plot of marker gene expression level of all cell types. C Cellular composition comparison between the Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD groups. D Illustrating images and quantification of NeuN immunostaining in cortex and hippocampus (highlighted by white dashed shape in the images) of Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD animals. Scale bar, 500 µm. Western blots and quantification of IBA1 (E), GFAP (F), vimentin (G), HMGCR (I), and RelA (K) levels in forebrain homogenates of Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD animals. In D–G, I, K, each dot represents one animal. Unpaired t-test was used to determine statistical significance. Data were presented as mean ± SD. For Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD groups, n = 4 and 3 in D; n = 5 and 5 in E–G, K; n = 9 and 10 in I. H Reactome pathway analysis of DEGs in neuron and astrocyte populations of Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD animals. J GO-BP analysis of DEGs in microglia population of Ctrl_AD and Inulin_AD mice. Supporting data values for D–G, I, K were included in Additional file 6: Supporting data values. Original images of D–G, I, K were included in Additional file 7: original images