Fig. 3: Chronic exposure to dAGEs induced intestinal barrier dysfunction and dysbiosis of the gut microflora. | Nature Communications

Fig. 3: Chronic exposure to dAGEs induced intestinal barrier dysfunction and dysbiosis of the gut microflora.

From: Dietary advanced glycation end-products promote food allergy by disrupting intestinal barrier and enhancing Th2 immunity

Fig. 3

a–g To evaluate the effect of dAGEs on intestinal barrier function, a series of experiments were meticulously designed across the dietary intervention and allergen sensitization phases: a Schematic illustration of the experimental design#. b Gut permeability assessed by an FITC-dextran assay (n = 6). c Endotoxin level in serum and feces of mice (n = 7–8). d Serum DAO activity (n = 6). e Serum D-lactic acid concentration (n = 6). f Representative images of immunohistochemistry staining for Claudin-2, ZO-1, and Occludin proteins in the jejunum tissue (n = 5); scale bar: 50 µm. g Representative images of immunofluorescence staining for RAGE, TLR2, and TLR4 receptors in the colon tissue (n = 5); scale bar: 50 µm. h–k To assess the impact of dAGEs on gut microbiota composition, feces of mice receiving different regimens were analyzed for 16S rRNA sequencing: h PCoA analysis based on Bray–Curits distance (Anosim test; n = 8). i Total OTUs number and α-diversity indexes (n = 8). j Bacterial relative abundance at the genus level (n = 8). UC unclassified, UD unidentified. k Spearman correlations between the relative abundance of pathogenic and probiotic genera and indicators associated with epithelium barrier function and innate signaling activation (n = 5–8). The R values were depicted by the circle size and color as scaled at the top. Bar graphs show mean ± SEM (f, g) and boxplots represent median with 25th/75th percentiles (box) and 1.5 × IQR (whiskers) (b–e, i). Pair-wise comparison was conducted by Student’s t tests or Mann–Whitney tests (two-tailed). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; FDR-corrected q values were presented in correlation analysis. AOD average optical density, DAO diamine oxidase, dAGEs dietary advanced glycation end-products, FDR false discovery rate, OUTs operational taxonomic units, PCoA principal coordinate analysis, RFI relative fluorescence intensity, SCFAs short-chain fatty acids. #Created in BioRender. Zhang (2025) https://BioRender.com/pf8iqnb. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Back to article page