Figure 3. Increased ethanol-induced liver disease in mice lacking pIgR after chronic ethanol feeding with single gavage of ethanol is associated with elevated bacterial translocation.

A) Schematic of 8 weeks Lieber-DeCarli ethanol diet or isocaloric control diet feeding study with a single gavage of ethanol in female pIgR^−/− mice (red) and wildtype littermates (grey).

B) Fecal IgA levels after dietary intervention.

C) Plasma IgA levels after dietary intervention.

D) Liver to body weight ratio.

E) Plasma ALT levels.

F) Representative images showing H&E staining of liver sections.

G) Hepatic triglyceride content.

H) Quantification of immunohistochemical staining for lipids using Oil Red O.

I) Representative images showing Oil Red O staining of liver sections.

J-O) mRNA levels of indicated genes (Cxcl1, Cxcl2, Ccr2, Cd11b, Col1a1, Timp1) in livers of ethanol-fed mice as shown in Figure 3A, assessed by qPCR. Data are shown relative to the isocaloric control-fed mice and normalized to 18S.

P) Quantification of sirius red staining of liver sections.

Q) Representative images showing sirius red staining of liver sections.

R) Plasma LPS levels after dietary intervention.

S) Total hepatic bacteria assessed by 16S levels in ethanol-fed mice as shown in Figure 3A. Data are shown relative to wildtype mice after normalization to 18S.

T) Colony forming units of viable E. coli in feces of ethanol-fed mice as shown in Figure 3A (n=6–7 mice/group).

U) Representative images showing fecal E. coli cultures in ethanol-fed mice.

V) Hepatic E. coli in ethanol-fed mice as shown in Figure 3A. Data are shown relative to wildtype mice after normalization to 16S.

Data shown as mean ± SEM of n=4 mice/isocaloric group and n=17–16/group for ethanol-fed mice from 4 independent experiments. * indicates p≤0.05, ** p≤0.01, *** p≤0.001, **** p≤0.0001. Exact p-values are provided in Table S3.