Fig. 1

In vitro steatosis, Oil Red O staining colorimetric assay. a Oil Red O staining pictures for HepG2 cells in presence of fatty acids (FA) 6 mM, different nutraceutical compounds (0.001 mg/mL) and their formulations (0.005 mg/mL). b Spectophotometric quantification and evaluation of lipid amount percentage with the different nutraceutical compounds (concentration range 0.001–0.05 mg/mL) respect to the control of steatotic cells (FA 6 mM). Curcumin, sylimarin vs CTR * that means p < 0.05 at 0.001 mg/ml. Choline vs CTR ** that means p < 0.01 at 0.001 mg/ml, and vs vitamin E ^#, DHA ^# and phosphatidylcholine ^# that means p < 0.05 at 0.001 mg/ml. Curcumin, sylimarin, choline and phosphatidylcholine vs CTR * that means p < 0.05 at 0.005 mg/ml. DHA vs CTR ** that means p < 0.01 at 0.005 mg/ml. DHA vs sylimarin ^# that means p < 0.05 at 0.005 mg/ml. Sylimarin, choline, vitamin E, DHA and phosphatidylcholine vs CTR * that means p < 0.05 at 0.05 mg/ml. Curcumin vs CTR ** that means p < 0.01 at 0.05 mg/ml. Curcumin vs DHA ^# and phosphatidylcholine ^# that means p < 0.05 at 0.05 mg/ml. c The graph reported Oil Red O staining colorimetric assay relative to lipid droplets accumulation in HepG2 cells treated with different nutraceutical formulations (0.005 mg/mL). All values were expressed in the form of mean ± SD (n = 3). b and c are relative to two groups of different experiments in which intracellular fat difference in the averaged data proved not to be significant using t-student test p > 0.05