FIGURE 1.

TPC lowers the arthritis score and alters gut microbiota in PBS-CIA mice. (A) Arthritis score of healthy (n = 4/group) and CIA mice (n = 7/group) subcutaneously treated with TPC vs. PBS was recorded at 8 time-points throughout the experiment, starting at day 0 (2 days prior to disease induction) and ending at day 34. Values are presented as the mean ± SD. ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001. (B,C) Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of fecal microbial communities in CIA and healthy mice treated with TPC or PBS. Community similarity was calculated using the UniFrac distance measure. While no specific clustering by experimental group is evident at day 0 (B), there appear to be 2 clusters at day 34 (C), one representing the microbiota from PBS-treated CIA mice, and the other clustering together the TPC-treated CIA mice, TPC-treated healthy mice, and PBS-treated healthy mice (circled), exhibiting similar bacterial populations.