Figure 3.

Protective effects of WKYMVm on the intestinal barrier in colitis. C57BL/6 mice were treated with vehicle, 3% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) or 3% DSS plus WKYMVm (8 mg kg⁻¹, six subcutaneous administrations at 12-h intervals) for 5 days, and fresh water was provided for an additional 2 days. On day 7, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)–dextran was administered by gavage and serum was collected 4 h later. The amount of FITC–dextran in the serum was measured (a). Caco-2 cells were stimulated with several concentrations (0, 10, 100 and 1000 nM) of WKYMVm (b), or with 1 μM of WKYMVm in the absence or presence of cyclosporine H (CsH; 1 μM) or WRWWWW (WRW⁴) (10 μM; c) for 24 h. Cell proliferation was measured using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (b, c). The data are expressed as the mean±s.e.m. (n=7 mice per group). ***P<0.001 compared with control. ^#P<0.05 compared with DSS alone (a). *P<0.05 compared with vehicle. ^#P<0.05 compared with WKYMVm alone (b, c). Vehicle or WKYMVm (1 μM) was added to a scratched Caco-2 cell layer for 0, 12 or 24 h. Images were obtained with a digital camera attached to a light microscope. The data are representative of four independent experiments (d).