FIG. 2.

C. rodentium-infected mice fed a doubly selenium- and vitamin E-deficient diet have higher organ/body weight ratios and mucosa heights. Mice (n = 7 or 8) were infected orally with approximately 1.0 × 10¹⁰ CFU of C. rodentium and sacrificed at 4, 7, 12, and 17 days postinfection. Mice were weighed just prior to euthanasia. (A and B) The spleen and first 5 cm of the distal colon from the anus were removed. Any fecal pellets present in the colon section were removed and both the spleen (A) and colon (B) weighed. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD percent organ/body weight (BW) ratio. *, P < 0.05; #, P < 0.001 (for comparison with infected mice fed the control adequate diet). Only within-day comparisons were made. The dashed line indicates the average organ weight in uninfected mice fed the control adequate diet. (C) Mucosa height was measured using an Arcturus XT microdissection system. Only well-oriented crypts were measured and averaged for each mouse. Data are expressed as the group mean ± SEM. *, significant different (P < 0.05) from uninfected mice fed the respective diet; #, the doubly selenium- and vitamin E-deficient infected group was significantly different from the infected control group on day 17.