Figure 3.

Body weight of IBD-affected IL-2-deficient mice treated with RVFP/IL-1ra producing S. gordonii. Two groups of six IL-2^-/- mice were inoculated intragastrically with 1 × 10¹⁰ CFU of either S. gordonii strain GP1294 (RVFP/IL-1; solid triangles) or GP204 (control; open triangles). One untreated mouse (open circles) served as a control of disease progression. Starting at 4 weeks of age, bacteria were administered (indicated by arrows) to mice twice per week for a total of 7 consecutive weeks. Body weight (in grams) of individual mice was recorded twice per week up to 15 weeks of age, and expressed as mean ± SD. Statistically significant (t test) differences between mice treated with S. gordonii GP1294 and those receiving GP204 are represented by asterisks (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01).