Fig. 1
After acclimation, the Sprague Dawley and Brown Norway rats were fed either a high fat or a regular diet. At week 7, the exposure to either GMA-SS welding fumes (20 mg/m3 × 3 h/d × 4 d/wk. × 5 wk) or HEPA filtered air began. At week 12, GMA-SS exposure were terminated and half of the rats were humanely sacrificed (n = 12/group/strain). For the other half the recovery period continued for another 12 weeks, before the animals were sacrificed and organs sampled at week 24 (n = 6/group for Sprague Dawley; n = 12/group for Brown Norway). Red arrows indicate sampling of groups