Fig. 2: Peripheral inflammatory measures and metabolomic analysis of caecal content.
Effect of antibiotics and exercise on (a) relative mRNA expression of TNFɑ (n = 7; two-way ANOVA; main effect of Abx), IL-6 (n = 7; Kruskal–Wallis test), IL-10 (n = 7; Kruskal–Wallis test; p = 0,0002; Abx effect: $$p < 0.01; Exercise effect: €p < 0.05), and CCL2 (n = 7; two-way ANOVA; main effect of Abx) in the colon. Plasma concentration of (b) TNFɑ (pg/ml) and (c) IL-6 (pg/ml) (n = 9; two-way ANOVA; main effect of Abx: a priori comparisons $p < 0.05; interaction Abx x Ex **p < 0.01). d fecal output (n = 9; Kruskal–Wallis test) (e) colon length at the end of the study (n = 10; two-way ANOVA; main effect of Abx); f Volcano plot of caecal metabolites for Sed+ABX and Sed rats. Top ten most significant metabolites are highlighted. g Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of caecal metabolomics (h) Volcano plot of caecal metabolites for Sed and Ex rats. i Normalised peak areas for the metabolite Ethyl 2-(4-oxo-4,5-dihydro-1,3-thiazol-2-yl)acetate; ***p < 0.001 (FDR-adjusted; Limma p value). Ex vs Sed: glog2 fold change = −4.8, pFDR-adjusted = 2.8E-8; Ex+ABX vs Sed+ABX: glog2 fold change = −6.2, pFDR-adjusted = 1.9E-11; Sed+ABX vs Sed comparison glog2 fold change = 2.6, pFDR-adjusted = 3.2E-5. Data are graphed as means + SEM. Abbreviation: FC fold change, glog2 generalised logarithm base 2. See Supplementary Table 5 for details of statistical analysis.
