Fig. 7.

P. cinnamivorans alleviated the inflammatory response and enhanced intestinal barrier function in HFD-induced obesity mice. (A) Heatmap of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of colon identified by RNA-seq. (B) Volcano plot showing DEGs of HFD + PC versus HFD. (C) KEGG analysis of up-regulated genes from DEGs of HFD versus LFD. (D) KEGG analysis of down-regulated genes from DEGs of HFD + PC versus HFD. (E-F) Serial sections of colon tissues were stained with H&E (E), and Histological scores (F). Scale-bar, 100 μm. (G) qPCR analysis of inflammatory marker expression in the colon, expressed relative to the housekeeping mRNA, Gapdh. (H-I) Secretion of TNF-α and IL-6 in colonic tissue (H) and serum (I) determined by ELISA. (J) Enrichment plot of JAK/STAT signaling pathway from GSEA. (K) RNA-seq expression data for JAK-STAT signaling genes. (L) The morphological changes of intestinal tight junctions were observed under transmission electron microscopy (TEM, 80,000 × magnification). (M) Immunofluorescence analysis of ZO-1 (green) and DAPI (blue). Scale-bar, 100 μm. (N) The expression of ZO-1 was assessed by Western blot. The right panel shows the relative protein levels quantified by densitometry and normalized to β-actin. (O) qPCR analysis of ZO-1 expression in the colon, expressed relative to the housekeeping mRNA, Gapdh. (P) Serum endotoxin (lipopolysaccharides, LPS) level. Datasets reflected mean ± SEM. One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc test. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 and *** P < 0.001. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)