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. 2010 Sep;177(3):1320–1332. doi: 10.2353/ajpath.2010.091068

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Colonic epithelial cell hyperplasia and inflammation in response to C. rodentium are associated with OPN. A: A decrease in the hyperplastic response after ten days of C. rodentium infection was observed in OPN−/− infected mice (bottom right panel), relative to infected wild-type (WT) mice (bottom left panel). Arrows indicate crypt length. Scale bar: 100 μm. B: Quantification was performed by measuring colonic crypt length in 20 well-oriented crypts per mouse (N = 15 to 24; analysis of variance: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.001). C: Overall histological grading of colitis (PI day 10) indicated higher scores in wild-type-infected relative to OPN−/−-infected colons (t-test: *P < 0.05). D: Breakdown of the histology score revealed increased severity in wild-type-infected mice (blue bars) relative to OPN−/−-infected mice (green bars) with respect to mucosal thickening and abscess formation (t-test: *P < 0.05) but no significant change in goblet cell displacement and inflammatory cell infiltration, which was mainly neutrophilic in nature (P = 0.06 and 0.05, respectively). E: Tumor necrosis factor-α and IFNγ were increased in colonic homogenates of infected wild-type mice (t-test: *P < 0.05) but not OPN−/− mice. IFNγ levels were higher in infected wild-type mice than in OPN−/− mice (t-test: *P < 0.05). F: Cleaved caspase-3 staining demonstrated a small number of apoptotic epithelial cells in uninfected wild-type and OPN−/− mice (arrowheads in top left and right panels, respectively). Infection with C. rodentium resulted in an increase in apoptosis in wild-type mice (arrowheads in bottom left panel), but not in OPN−/− mice (bottom right panel). G: In both uninfected wild-type and OPN−/− mice (top panels) Ki-67 staining indicated that the proliferative zone was limited to the bottom third of colonic crypts. Infection with C. rodentium caused an increase in proliferation, which extended to the whole length of the crypt in wild-type colons (bottom left panel), but not in OPN−/− mice (bottom right panel). Scale bar: 100 μm.