Figure 4.

Microbiota induces maturation of colonic permeability. Colonic permeability as well as TJ mRNA and protein expression were assessed at days 1, 7 and 21 post-colonization. (a) Paracellular permeability to ⁵¹Cr-EDTA and (b) transcellular permeability to HRP. (c) Evaluation of claudin-1 and (d) occludin protein expression by IF. (e) Representative IF images of TJ proteins. Target proteins are shown in green, nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Arrows indicate areas of high expression. (f) Representative images of colon mucosal structure. Each data point represents one mouse; the horizontal line and whiskers depict the mean ± SD. Data was collected over 2–5 independently executed experiments. Significance was determined by Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s post-hoc test.