Fig 7. Enterobacteriaceae blooms seen in Paneth cell depletion-induced NEC are independent of gavaged bacteria.

To determine if the bloom of Enterobacteriaceae was due to the Klebsiella gavage, tomato mice with constitutively expressed red fluorescent protein were gavaged with GFP labeled Klebsiella. Small intestinal samples were harvested and examined for presence of GFP-tagged Klebsiella. (A) As seen above, Klebsiella was gone from the small intestine by 5 hours, well before the bloom was seen in dithizone or DTX models (n = 3 animals at each time point, representative microscopy shown). (B) To determine bacterial load, cecal samples were measured by spectrophotometry. Bacterial levels returned to pre-gavage levels within 4 hours of gavage (n = 3).