Figure 3. Deregulated secretion of proinflammatory cytokines in colon from atg4b^−/− mice. (A) Protein level of the proinflammatory cytokines IL1Aand IL6 in colon tissue extracts from DSS-treated WT (n = 8) and atg4b^−/− mice (n = 7). (B) Protein level of cytokines secreted by macrophages from WT (n = 5) and atg4b^−/− mice (n = 5) after their exposure to LPS in vitro. (C) Microarray analyses of the colon and ileum from atg4b^−/− and WT mice. A heat map representing the expression profiles of genes with significant differential expression when comparing WT vs. atg4b^−/− colon from control and DSS-treated mice (left) or WT vs. atg4b^−/− ileum from control mice (right) is shown, displayed as Log²-transformed expression signals. The results shown are means ± SEM. Statistical significance was determined by Student’s t-test (*p < 0.05).