Table 5.

Ileal histomorphometry on Days 4 and 8 post-inoculation (PI).

		Treatmentsa				P-value
	Days PI	CN	CP	NN	NP	RSDb	Challenge	Probiotic	Interaction
Villous height (μm)	4	192.0	183.6	258.1	256.9	65.94	0.026	0.869	0.903
	8	198.3B	243.4A,B	303.3A	237.5A,B	56.80	0.061	0.682	0.038
Crypt depth (μm)	4	253.9	249.2	225.6	268.1	27.24	0.696	0.125	0.059
	8	242.5A	242.7A	182.8B	259.1A	30.70	0.124	0.010	0.011
Villous:Crypt ratio	4	0.78	0.75	1.15	0.96	0.280	0.027	0.382	0.509
	8	0.81B	1.01B	1.67A	0.93B	0.218	<0.001	0.011	<0.001
IELc (N° cel/100 μm)	4	1.04	1.25	1.38	1.49	0.546	0.243	0.506	0.822
	8	0.73	1.21	0.98	1.44	0.398	0.178	0.015	0.950
GCd (N° cel/100 μm)	4	0.74	0.69	0.71	0.66	0.308	0.817	0.719	0.965
	8	0.96	1.04	0.66	0.44	0.401	0.018	0.697	0.402
Mitosise (N° cel/100 μm)	4	0.42	0.36	0.26	0.26	0.123	0.022	0.579	0.579
	8	0.25	0.26	0.34	0.20	0.097	0.765	0.150	0.103

^aTreatments: CN, challenged + no probiotic; CP, challenged + probiotic; NN, no challenge + no probiotic; NP, no challenge + probiotic. ^bResidual Standard Deviation. n = 8 for groups CN and CP, n = 4 for groups NN and NP. ^cIEL = Villous intraepithelial lymphocytes; ^dGC = Villous goblet cells/100 μm; ^eNumber of mitosis in crypts. ^ABMeans within rows without common letters differ by the Means-Tukey adjustment test (P < 0.05).