Figure 4.

Microbiota Controls the Continuous Supply of Glial Cells to the Intestinal Mucosa

(A and B) Sections of the ileum of control (A) and antibiotic-treated (B) wild-type adult mice. Arrows in (A) indicate glial cells. (C–F) Distribution of confetti⁺ glial cells in the ileum of tamoxifen-treated 8- to 12-week-old Sox10::CreER^T2;R26RConfetti mice at T0 (C and D) and T15 (E and F) in the absence (C and E) or presence (D and F) of antibiotics. Arrows indicate confetti⁺ glial cells in the lamina propria. (G) The average number of confetti⁺ cells in VC units at T15 is reduced in antibiotic-treated animals. Data is represented as mean ± SEM. The distribution of the number of labeled glial cells per VC unit has been plotted using the non-linear paradigm, representing a different curve for each dataset as the best fit with a ^∗∗∗p value = 0.0004. Using the two-way ANOVA and Sidak’s multiple comparisons test, significant differences were observed in the 0 and 2 cells per VC unit categories with ^∗∗p values = 0.0014 and 0.0081, respectively. The F(DFn, DFd) and p values for Factor 1: With Vs Without antibiotic is 0 (1, 36) p > 0.99; Factor 2: number of glial cells in VC units is 21.47 (5, 36) ^∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001 and interaction of Factor 1 with Factor 2 is 6.353 (5, 36) with ^∗∗∗p = 0.0003. Scale bars: 100 μm (A–F).