Figure 3
From: Gene expression profiles of germ-free and conventional piglets from the same litter
Morphological changes caused by the absence of a microbiota. (a) The hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining results. (b) Spleens of germ-free (GF) and cesarean-derived conventional (CV) piglets. (c) Validation of DEGs with quantitative real-time PCR (QPCR). In the QPCRs, relative gene expression levels were calculated using the ΔΔCt method and normalized against the reference gene ß-actin. The Y-axis represents fold change. We used unpaired Student’s t tests to evaluate the statistical significance of differences between the CV and GF piglets. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001. All data are presented as means ± standard error (SE).
