Figure 1.

Proinflammatory gene expression in the mucosa after cSTX. Mice were injected with 6-OHDA to achieve a chemical sympathectomy (cSTX) within the intestinal lamina propria. Controls were injected with a vehicle (Veh). (A–C) Two weeks after the last injection, cSTX efficacy was visualized by immunofluorescence staining for TH, showing a complete loss of TH⁺ fibers in the ileum (A), cecum (B), and colon (C) upon cSTX, Scale bars, 100 μm. (D–F) Immunofluorescence staining for Iba1 shows the presence of Iba1⁺ macrophages throughout the ileum (D), cecum (E), and colon (F) in the Veh- and cSTX-treated mice Scale bars, 100 μm. (G–I) Representative FACS dot plots of muscularis-free lamina propria preparations of cSTX- and Veh-treated mice, demonstrating the gating strategy based on forward/sideward scatter (G), singlets (H), and Hoechst live–dead exclusion (I). (J,L,N,P) Representative FACS dot plots showing CD45⁺ immune cells (J), the ratio of MHCII⁺ F4/80⁺ (L), the percentage of CD86⁺ vs. CD68⁺ (N), and the percentage of Ly6C⁺ vs. Ly6G⁺ cells (P) upon cSTX as compared with the Veh group. (K,M,O,Q) Bar graphs showing the quantification of the CD45⁺ cell numbers (K) n = 4, MHCII⁺ F4/80⁺ cell numbers (M) n = 4, CD86⁺ C68⁺ cell numbers (O) n = 4, and Ly6C⁺ Ly6G⁻ monocytes (Q) n = 4. (R,S) mRNA levels of proinflammatory genes (R) and anti-inflammatory genes (S) n = 6 measured by qPCR in mucosal tissue samples of Veh- (white) and cSTX-treated mice (red). Values in each column are displayed as the mean ± SEM, and an unpaired t-test was carried out for statistical analysis (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001).