Fig. 9. Intravenous injection of the CMV-siR^TNF-α or CMV-siR^T+B+I circuit ameliorates spontaneous UC in IL-10^−/− mice.

a Body weight curves (n = 6 in each group). b Representative macroscopic features of colons. Scale bar: 1 cm. c Mean colon length (n = 6 in each group). d, e Determination of the levels of IFN-γ, IL-17A, IL-6, IL-12/23p40, IL-23 and IL-12p70 in the colon by ELISA (n = 6 in each group). f Representative images of H&E staining of colon sections. Scale bar: 200 μm. g Histological scores of colon sections (n = 5 in WT, CMV-scrR, CMV-siR^T+B+I and IFX groups; n = 4 in CMV-siR^TNF-α group). h Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the relative expression levels of TNF-α mRNA in the colon (n = 6 in each group). i Determination of the absolute expression levels of TNF-α protein in the colon by ELISA (n = 6 in each group). j, k Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the relative expression levels of B7-1 and integrin α4 mRNA in the colon (n = 6 in each group). Values are presented as the mean ± SEM. Significance was determined using one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparison in (c–e, g–j, k), or two-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparison in (a). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.005.