Figure 3.

Chromofungin (CHR) attenuates colonic inflammation and reduces colonic collagen deposition in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. (A) Experimental design of peptides treatment and DSS-induced colitis. Mice were received 5% DSS for 5 days. Mice received an intracolonic injection of CHR peptide (2.5 mg/kg/day) or scrambled CHR peptide (2.5 mg/kg/day) or vehicle phosphate-buffered saline 1% (control) starting 1 day before DSS treatment. Disease onset and severity (from day 0 to day 5) represented by (B) percentage of body weight change of different groups, (C) stool consistency, and (D) blood in stool. Colonic collagen deposition scores were quantified by (E,F) Masson Trichrome staining for collagen in colonic tissues, whereas collagen stained in blue with a red background. (G) Quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of collagen col1a2 mRNA expression in colonic tissues of mice. Two-way repeated measures or one-way ANOVA followed by multiple comparison tests. Each value represents the mean ± SEM, n = 8–10 mice/group. ^# refers to significance compared to control groups. Each experiment was repeated at least three times.