Figure 3.

Early postnatal exposure to glucocorticoids recapitulates the effects of MSEW on adolescent mice. A, Experimental design for early life exposure (day of life 1 to 14) to dexamethasone (Dex) or the vehicle (Veh, 0.002% DMSO, 0.02% 2-hydroxypropyl-β- cyclodextrin). B, Concentration of FITC-dextran in plasma of 4-week-old mice 4 hours after oral gavage and normalized to plasma from mice that did not receive FITC-dextran. Graphs (C-D) showing plasma concentrations of (C) CORT and (D; ACTH) in 4-week-old Veh and Dex mice as measured by ELISA (n ≥ 13). E, Experimental design for colitis induction, beginning at 4-wks of age, 2-wks post Dex exposure. F, Weight change as a percentage of initial (PND 28) weight over the course of the experiment. G, Graphs showing scores for inflammation, epithelial damage, and total colitis of the proximal colon in α-IL-10R–treated Veh and Dex mice on day 30. (n ≥ 17). H, Representative H&E-stained colonic tissue sections from PBS- and α-IL-10R–treated Veh and Dex mice Scale bars = 100μm. I, Relative Tnf mRNA levels in proximal colons of α-IL-10R–treated Veh and Dex mice normalized to PBS-treated Veh mice (n ≥ 10 mice/group). J, Relative mRNA levels of Tnfrsf1a (left) and Tnfrsf1b (right) in crypt-enriched epithelial cells from the colons of α-IL-10R–treated Veh and Dex mice, normalized to PBS-treated Veh mice (n ≥ 6). All transcripts were initially normalized to Tbp. Error bars represent mean ± SEM. Asterisk denotes significant difference from Mann-Whitney U test (C), or 1-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (G, I, J) at *P < .05, **P < .01, ***P < .001, and ****P < .0001.Data are compiled from 3 individual experiments.