Fig. 3: EFHD2 inhibits apoptosis but not necroptosis in intestinal epithelial cells.

a Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining of the distal colon from Efhd2^f/f and Efhd2^f/f Vil1^cre/+ mice and counts of TUNEL-positive cells before and after DSS administration on day 7. Scale bar, 50 μm; n = 6 each group; HPF, high power field. b Immunofluorescent detection of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-8 and p-MLKL (green) in colonic samples from Efhd2^f/f and Efhd2^f/f Vil1^cre/+ mice after DSS administration on day 7. Left scale bars of each marker, 1000 μm; right scale bars of each marker, 100 μm. c Quantifications of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-8 and p-MLKL positive cells from b. n = 6 each group. d Western blot analysis and quantifications of cleaved caspase-3 (C-Caspase-3), cleaved caspase-8 (C-Caspase-8) and p-MLKL in lysates of isolated IECs from DSS-treated Efhd2^f/f and Efhd2^f/f Vil1^cre/+ mice on day 7. n = 4 each group. e Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment for biological processes from significantly up-regulated transcripts in the transcriptome of IECs from DSS-treated Efhd2^f/f Vil1^cre/+ versus Efhd2^f/f mice on day 7. GO enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes was implemented by the clusterProfiler R package (padj <0.05). The padj was calculated with Benjamini-Hochberg multiple testing adjustment. Dot color corresponds to the padj of enrichment, and dot size is determined by the gene count (two-sided). f Heatmap of significantly increasingly expressed genes related to acute inflammatory response, neutrophil and myeloid leukocyte migration, and positive regulation of apoptotic signaling pathway from e. Two replicates each group. Data are representative of three independent experiments; error bars show means ± s.d. P values were determined by unpaired two-tailed t-test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.