Fig. 2
Intragastric administration of SCFAs to animals chronically consuming ethanol restores normal intestinal architecture and reduces ethanol-induced inflammation in the proximal colon. Male UChB rats, voluntarily consuming a 10% ethanol solution for 58 days, were treated with either a combination of SCFAs (300 mg/kg each sodium acetate, sodium propionate and sodium butyrate), or 554 mg/kg NaCl solution (vehicle), by oral gavage twice-daily for five days. An additional group of untreated animals drinking only water (naïve) was used as a control. (A) Representative haematoxylin & eosin staining of proximal colon tissue showing crypts length. (B) Quantification of crypt length. (C) Representative hematoxylin & eosin staining of proximal colon tissue showing lamina propria cell infiltration, with dashed black line separating epithelial lining from lamina propria compartments. Red arrows point to polymorphonuclear and eosinophil leukocytes, plasma cells and macrophages, based on morphological identification. Yellow arrows point to intraepithelial polymorphonuclear cell infiltration. Scale bar 10 μm. (D) Quantification of lamina propria cell infiltration in the colonic mucosa. (E) Quantification of mRNA levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α and IL-6 determined by RT-qPCR in samples of proximal colon. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. N = 6 animals per group. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ****p < 0.0001, One-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post-hoc test.
