Figure 1.

Intestinal barrier in large intestine of 52-week-old female C57BL/6 mice is partially maintained after acute ethanol exposure compared to same age male mice. (A) H&E staining of large intestine in 52-week-old female and male C57BL/6 mice treated with EtOH (6 g/kg) performed in paraffin liver sections. Crypt of Lieberkuhn is indicated by arrows. (B) Intestine permeability to FITC-dextran in female and male mice treated with EtOH/PBS gavage, represented as mg/mL serum (n = 3–4). (C) ZO-1 staining in large intestine of 52 weeks-old female and male mice after acute EtOH intoxication and (D) each quantification. (E) Mucin-2 immunofluorescence staining of 52 weeks-old C57BL/6 female and male mice treated with EtOH (6 g/kg) or PBS large intestine cryosections and (F) each quantification. (n = 7). Scale bars: 100 μm. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001, #P < 0.05. ns, no statistical difference.