Fig. 1

NMS leads to EC cell hyperplasia and increased enteric serotonin via NGF/TrkA signaling. a The concentration of serotonin/5-HT in the proximal colons isolated from control and NMS mice treated with/without NGF and MNAC13 was measured at 8 weeks upon NMS treatment. **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001, n ≥ 5/group; ANOVA. b Western blotting analyses on the expression of p-TrkA (Y490) in the tissues isolated from a. The protein loading for total TrkA was normalized and served as a loading control. c Immunostaining for serotonin/5-HT shows the distribution of serotonin-producing EC cells in both small intestines and proximal colons from control and NMS mice treated with/without NGF and MNAC13 (scale bar: 50 μm). d Quantification for the densities of EC cells in both small intestines (right panel) and colons (left panel). ***p < 0.001, n ≥ 5/group, ANOVA. e Western blotting analyses on the expression of NGF in the proximal colons from control and NMS mice treated with/without NMAC13 at 8 weeks upon NMS treatment. β-actin served as a loading control. Data represent the mean ± SEM