Figure 7.

Loss of intestinal CTα changes the microbiome but depletion of gut microbes with antibiotics does not prevent colitis development in CTα^IKO mice. (A) Copy number of 16S rRNA in feces of control mice and CTα^IKO mice treated with and without antibiotics (n = 3–5/group). (B) Chao1 and (C) Shannon indexes of gut microbiota from control mice and CTα^IKO mice treated with and without antibiotics (control, n = 14; CTα^IKO, n = 11; control + antibiotics, n = 5; CTα^IKO + antibiotics, n = 5). (D) Principle component analysis plots of the bacterial communities based on the Bray–Curtis distance matrix. Each point represents an individual mouse (control, n = 14; CTα^IKO, n = 11; control + antibiotics, n = 5; CTα^IKO + antibiotics, n = 5). (E) Pathology score for goblet cell depletion in the colons of control mice and CTα^IKO mice treated with and without antibiotics (n = 4–5/group). (F) Pathology scores of control mice and CTα^IKO mice treated with and without antibiotics (n = 4–5/group). Columns that do not share a letter (a, b, or c) are significantly different (α = .05).