Figure 3.

Gut microbiota alters pancreas mass. A: Pancreas weight of mice on chow, HFD, HFD + vancomycin (V), or HFD + metronidazole (M) (n = 7–8 per group) at the end of 10 weeks of antibiotics (Abx) treatment. B: Schematic representation of the modified short-term experimental design. C: Body weight gain of mice on chow or HFD with or without Abx treatment. Time 0 is the beginning of the HFD, and the dashed line represents the beginning of Abx treatment (n = 5 per group). D: Pancreas weight of mice on chow, HFD, HFD + vancomycin, or HFD + metronidazole (n = 5 per group) at the end of 2 weeks of Abx treatment. E: Experimental design in which mice were treated for 4 weeks with chow or HFD, then 3 weeks with water or Abx in addition to the diet, and then all mice on Abx were placed on normal water (Abx were removed). F: Pancreas weight of mice 3 weeks after the Abx removal (n = 4 per group). G: Quantification of amylase⁺ BrdU⁺ cells. Data represent mean ± SEM (n = 4–5 per group). **P ≤ 0.01. H: Total number of amylase⁺, acinar cells for a constant area (63.5 mm²). Data represent mean ± SEM. Protein content (I) and DNA content (J) of 1 mg pancreas tissue (n = 3; 6 images/pancreata). Data represent mean ± SEM.