Fig 5.

Female SWR × NZB F₁ (SNF₁) mouse intestine expresses a large number of proinflammatory factors. cDNA prepared from the distal ileum of 4- and 16-week-old male and female SNF₁ mice was subjected to real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to assess the expression levels of immune cell-associated factors including cytokines, transcription factors and chemokines. Expression levels of individual factors were calculated against the value of β-actin. Mean of these values (four to five mice/group) was used for generating the heat map. The lowest value of an individual factor among four groups of mice was considered as 1 (row minimum) for calculating fold expression values for each row.