Figure 1.

Escherichia coli can induce liver injury in mice. WT mice were injected with PBS or 3 × 10⁸ cfu/mlE. coli intraperitoneally and sacrificed 3 hours later. Liver pathological injuries were observed with hematoxylin and eosin staining (a–d). The yellow arrows indicate edema, the blue arrows indicate inflammatory cell infiltration, the black arrows indicate punctate necrosis, and the green arrows indicate binucleate hepatocytes. Bacteria from the liver of PBS- or E. coli-stimulated WT mice were cultured in MH medium (e, f) overnight and identified by Gram staining (g). The serum AST (h) and ALT (i) concentrations were determined by using the detection kits. The mRNA of liver inflammatory cytokines TLR4 (j), NLRP3 (k), IL-1β (l), and IL-18 (m) of PBS- or 3 × 10⁸ cfu/mlE. coli-stimulated mice were measured by RT-qPCR. Data are presented as means ± standard deviation. Statistical significance was determined by the paired t-test (n = 3, ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01).