h&e staining (panel a, 200×) of middle colon tissues of dss-treated mice. panel a: g1, a middle colon tissue slide from g1 showing normal colonic mucosa; g2, a middle colon tissue slide from g2 showing severe inflammation in mucosa and submucosa; g3, a middle colon tissue slide from g3 showing moderate inflammation in mucosa and submucosa; g4, a middle colon tissue slide from g4 showing mild inflammation in mucosa. panel b and c: inflammation scores of middle and distal colon, respectively (mean ± sd, n=5); a, b, c on top of bars indicating significant difference (p<0.05) by anova, ** indicating difference (p<0.01) by t-test, while not significantly different by anova.