Human beta defensin (hBD) 2–4 and cytokine (tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin 1α (IL-1α), interleukin 10 (IL-10)) mRNA concentrations in mucosal tissue before and after four weeks’ consumption of synbiotic or placebo. Bars represent means (SD). All results shown for inducible hBD (2–4) were normalised for epithelial cell numbers, as determined by levels of hBD1, the constitutive epithelial cell housekeeping gene, and cytokine levels were normalised for total cells per biopsy using glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Significance between the pre- and post-synbiotic groups were hBD2 (*p = 0.0156), hBD3 (*p = 0.0379), hBD4 (*p = 0.0078), TNF-α (*p = 0.0175), IL-1α (*p = 0.0379), and IL-10 (NS). Significance between the post-synbiotic and post-placebo groups were hBD2 (NS), hBD3 (NS), hBD4 (NS), TNF-α (†p = 0.0177), IL-1α (†p = 0.0051), and IL-10 (NS).