FIGURE 1.

Deletion of intestine epithelial GR attenuates alcohol‐ and corticosterone‐induced disruption of intestinal epithelial apical junctional complexes. Adult GR^ΔHC and GR^ΔIEC mice were fed a liquid diet with (EF) or without (PF) ethanol for 4 weeks. In some groups, animals were injected with corticosterone (Cort) daily; the other groups received the vehicle. (A–C) Tight junction integrity was assessed by immunofluorescence staining of colon cryosections for occludin and ZO‐1 (A; green, occludin; red, ZO‐1; blue, nucleus) and confocal microscopy. The ZO‐1 (B) and occludin (C) fluorescence densities were measured at the epithelial junctions. (D–F) Adherens junction integrity was assessed by staining colon sections for E‐cadherin and β‐catenin (B; green, E‐cadherin; red, β‐catenin; blue, nucleus) and measuring E‐cadherin (E) and β‐catenin (F) densities at the epithelial junctions. Values in panels B, C, E, and F are mean ± SEM (n = 6); *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .005, and ****p < .001 for significant difference between the indicated groups; ns, not significant