Fig. 6

The role of A. muciniphila and other marker features in DSS-induced acute colitis. (A) Experimental design. (B) Disease activity score (DAI) on day 9 of the experiment (n = 7−11). No significant difference was identified with the Wilcoxon test (W = 26, p = 0.16). (C) Colon length on the day 9 of the experiment (n = 8−12). *** – p < 0.001, the Wilcoxon test (Cont vs. Amuc_high_aDSS W = 86.5, p = 0.0031; Cont vs. Amuc_low_aDSS W = 59, p = 0.005). (D) Body weight loss during DSS treatment, expressed as a percentage of initial body weight (n = 8−12). (E–G) 16S rRNA DNA levels of marker features in feces of the mice before and after DSS treatment (n = 8−12). **, *** p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, the Wilcoxon test with Benjaminni-Hochberg correction (A. muciniphila: Before_Amuc_high vs. Before_Amuc_low W = 96, p = 0.00006, Before_Amuc_high vs. aDSS_Amuc_high W = 11, p = 0.0002, Before_Amuc_low vs. aDSS_Amuc_low W = 0, p = 0.0002; B. acidifaciens: Before_Amuc_high vs. aDSS_Amuc_high W = 118, p = 0.007). Value points shown in red indicate outliers. (H–K) Relative mRNA levels of Tnfa, Ifng, Il1b, Nos2 (normalized to Tubb5) in colon tissue. * p < 0.05, ** – p < 0.01, the Wilcoxon test with Benjaminni-Hochberg correction (Tnfa: Cont vs. DSS_Amuc_high W = 14, p = 0.022; Nos2 Cont vs. DSS_Amuc_high W = 9, p = 0.005). Value points shown in red indicate outliers. (L) The Spearman correlation between the abundance of fecal DNA of the identified markers at the “Before” (A. muciniphila and B. acidifaciens) and “aDSS” (D. fairfieldensis) time points and expression of Tnfa, Ifng, Nos2 in colon tissue. Correlations and Benjaminni-Hochberg adjusted p-value are highlighted in red.