Fig. 1
Body weight, composition, and food intake. a Body weights across the pre-ovariectomy (OVX) period for rats selected as lean or obese. b At the time of OVX (when animals had at least 1 tumor > 1cm3), obese (OB) rats were significantly heavier than the lean (L) group, and this was due to both higher fat and lean mass. c Body weights for lean and obese rats, with and without metformin (Met) treatment (2 mg/mL in drinking water), across the post-OVX period. Metformin was started at time −1 week; OVX occurred at week 0. Body weight was measured twice per week for the first 6 weeks following OVX, then weekly for weeks 7–8. A brief surgery-induced weight loss was followed by OVX-induced weight gain in both lean and obese animals, with no difference between metformin-treated and untreated animals. d Food intake is reported as the mean intake measured over the early (first 4 weeks) and late (weeks 5–8) post-OVX period. Metformin had no significant effect on food intake. e Body weight, fat mass, and lean mass measured by qMR at the end of the study. Obese rats had significantly higher body weight, fat mass, and lean mass than lean rats (p < 0.05), but metformin had no significant effect on these measures. *p < 0.05. MNU, 1-methyl-1-nitrosourea