Figure 1.

Chronic restraint stress synergizes alcohol-induced disruption of gut barrier dysfunction and liver damage. Adult mice were fed a liquid diet with (EF) or without (PF) ethanol for four weeks. In some groups, animals were subjected to two-hour restraint stress (CRS) or "Sham" treated. (A) Body weights were recorded twice a week. (B) Plasma corticosterone levels. (C) Epithelial tight junction integrity was assessed by staining cryosections of the colon for occludin and ZO-1 by immunofluorescence method followed by confocal imaging. (D,E) Mucosal permeability was measured by the vascular-to-luminal flux of FITC-inulin in the colon (D) and ileum (E) in vivo. (F,G) ALT (F) and AST (G) activities were measured in plasma. (H,I) Liver sections were stained with Oil-Red-O for fat deposits (H). Liver extracts were analyzed for triglyceride content (I). Values in graphs are mean ± SEM (n = 6). Dots in bars indicate individual values. The numbers above the bars are p-values for differences between the groups indicated by the horizontal lines, and "ns" indicates no significant difference between groups.