Figure 4.

IL-17A induces caspase activation in parietal cells in vivo. Two-month-old BALB/c mice were infected with 10⁹ TCID50 of ADV via tail vein injection. The ADV expressed either β-galactosidase (control) or rIL-17A (IL-17A-ADV). (A) Representative immunohistochemical staining for activated caspase-3 in control and IL-17A-ADV–infected mice. Yellow arrows denote activated caspase-3 staining. (B) Quantification of all activated caspase-3–positive parietal cells present in 3 complete sections of gastric corpus from each infected mouse (6 mice per group). (C) Representative immunofluorescent staining of control and IL-17A-ADV mouse stomachs for Hoechst (blue), VEGF-B (red), and TUNEL (green). Yellow arrows denote VEGF-B⁺TUNEL⁺ cells with high magnification inset images located in the yellow boxes in the top right corner. (D) TUNEL⁺ parietal cells were quantified in 3 representative images from each mouse, showing increased numbers of parietal cell–specific caspase activation in IL-17A-ADV mice. Significance was determined using an unpaired Student t test.