Figure 1.

MDX and CMC increase colitis incidence in genetically susceptible hosts. IL10KO mice were conditioned with fecal material from NOD2KO mice for up to 11 weeks and concurrently fed a control chow diet or a food additive supplemented diet containing either 1% w/w MDX or CMC. (A) Fecal lipocalin-2 (LCN2) levels were assessed from fresh stool samples collected weekly to monitor intestinal inflammation levels. A LCN2 value of 500ng/g of stool (dotted line) post week 2 was used as a benchmark to determine colitis status. Samples from 5 independent experiments, with 3-12 mice per diet per experiment. (B) Cumulative incidence of colitis over time by diet group, represented as percent of mice that developed colitis. A LCN2 value of 500ng/g of stool or greater after week 2 was used to determine colitis onset. Once a mouse reached the threshold, an incident was counted. Any mice who did not reach the threshold at any point throughout the experiment were censored at the endpoint. Mean ± SEM, statistical significance for trend was determined by logrank test. (C) Serum amyloid A levels were assessed in the plasma isolated from whole blood collected at endpoint. Samples from 5 independent experiments, with 3-12 mice per diet per experiment. Mean ± SEM, statistical significance was determined by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test. (D) Histological score of H&E colon sections. Score is a cumulative total of the 4 assessed parameters: epithelial layer integrity, immune cell infiltration, submucosal swelling, and muscularis hyperplasia. Samples from 4 independent experiments, with 2-5 mice per diet per experiment were scored. Mean ± SEM, statistical significance was determined by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test. (E) Representative H&E stained colon tissue sections. Scale bar is 500μm.