Figure 7.

Colonic and systemic TNF-α secretion following peroral C. coli infection of IL-10^-/- mice with chronic colitis. IL-10^-/- mice with pre-existing chronic colitis were perorally challenged with C. coli (black circles) on days 0 and 1 or received vehicle (mock controls; white diamonds). Upon necropsy (i.e., day 28 post-infection), TNF-α concentrations were measured in (A) colonic ex vivo biopsies and in (B) serum samples. Medians (black bars), levels of significance (p-values) assessed by the Mann–Whitney U test and numbers of analyzed mice (in parentheses) are indicated. Data were pooled from four independent experiments.