Fig. 4: ERdj5 contributes to the maintenance of intestinal barrier integrity.

a Zo-1 and Cldn1 mRNA expression in the colon tissues of WT or ERdj5-KO mice treated with DSS (n = 6 per group). b Immunofluorescence images of colon tissue stained for the tight junction proteins ZO-1 (red) and Claudin-1 (green) (×200, scale bar 100 µm). c IL-10 and IL-22 expression in colon tissue homogenates (n = 5–8 per group). d Mice were infected with 2.5 × 10⁸ CFU of C. rodentium. On Day 14 postinfection, CFUs in the colon and cecum were measured (n = 9–12 per group). e Representative immunofluorescence images of colon tissues from WT or ERdj5-KO mice 10 days after C. rodentium infection. CLCA1 (red), TUNEL (red), and DAPI (blue) (×200, scale bar 100 µm). f CLCA1⁺ cell counts per crypt of WT and ERdj5-KO mice in e (n = 10–12 per group). The data are representative of three independent experiments, and the values are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test for a, c, f and Student’s t test for d.