Figure 2.

Cytokine expression levels in the healthy and inflamed small bowel. Tissue expression levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-17 (IL-17), IL-10 and IL-4 were separately assessed in jejunal and ileal specimens of wild-type (WT) and TNFΔARE/WT (TNF) mice. Specimens from at least six mice were analysed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction for each strain and locality. Results are shown as mean ± SD. The inflamed ileum of TNFΔARE/WT mice revealed a significant increase in the expression levels of all cytokines examined (indicated by asterisks), except for IL-4. A significant difference was assumed when P ≤ 0·05.