Figure 7.

Intestinal epithelial cell-mediated mTOR signaling is critical for Dex-potentiated acute experimental ulcerative colitis. The effects of mTOR in epithelial cells were observed in dexamethasone (Dex)-potentiated mTor^Epi−/− and wild-type (WT) acute colitis mice. Weight loss (A) and colon lengths (B) are shown. (C,D) The flow cytometry staining of infiltrating inflammatory cells in the colonic tissue of acute colitis mice is shown; a representative figure is shown (C), and the data are summarized (D). (E) The concentrations of the mucosal cytokines TNFα and IL-6 were measured by ELISA and are expressed as pg/mg total protein. Representative results are based on one of three or four independent experiments performed with similar results. The data are presented as the mean ± SD (n = 3–4 mice per group). Statistical significance was measured by one-way ANOVA. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001, compared with the indicated groups.