Fig. 1.

Better clinical outcome of acute DSS colitis in MMP-2-, but not MMP-9-deficient mice. Relative body weight loss (A), clinical condition (as indicated by a clinical colitis score, see Materials and methods) (B), and absolute colon lengths (C) of wildtype (WT, black bars), MMP-9^–/– (MMP-9; gray bars), or MMP-2^–/– (MMP-2; white bars) mice were recorded at day 8 after DSS treatment for 7 days. Numbers of analyzed animals are given in parentheses. Mean values, standard errors of the mean (SEM), and significance levels as indicated were determined by the Student’s t-test. Data are pooled from at least four independent experiments