Fig. 2.

Adam17^flox/floxMx1-Cre⁺ mice exhibit decreases in epithelial cell proliferation, number of goblet cells and barrier function. a. Efficiency of Cre-induced Adam17 excision in the colon (distal, proximal and cecum) and liver evaluated by RT-PCR. b. Immunoblot of ADAM17 in the distal colon from control and Adam17^flox/floxMx1-Cre⁺ (ΔAdam17_Mx1) mice at days 0 and 8 after DSS challenge. β-Actin was used as a loading control. c. Representative ADAM17-immunostained colon sections from control and ΔAdam17_Mx1 mice at days 0 and 8 after DSS challenge. The highlighted areas are magnified to the right. Scale bars, 100 μm. d. Quantification of number of BrdU-positive epithelial cells per gland and percentage of PCNA-positive epithelial cells is shown. Bars, mean ± s.d.; n = 3–4 colon tissues; *, p < 0.05. e. Images and quantification of colonic goblet cells in control and ΔAdam17_Mx1 mice. Representative Alcian-Blue-stained sections from control and ΔAdam17_Mx1 mice at days 0 and 8 after DSS challenge are indicated in the left panel. Scale bars, 100 μm. Quantification of number of Alcian-Blue-positive goblet cells per 100 epithelial cells is shown in the right panel. Bars, mean ± s.d.; n = 4 colon tissues; **, p < 0.01. f. In vivo permeability assay performed by measuring the translocation of FITC-dextran, given by gavage, into mouse serum after 4 h. Bars, mean ± s.d.; n = 4–6 mice; **, p < 0.01. Results between the two independent groups were determined by Student's t-test. P values smaller than 0.05 are indicated on respective plots.