Fig. 1: Inflammation is attenuated in tcdR mice in a mouse model of C. difficile infection. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Inflammation is attenuated in tcdR mice in a mouse model of C. difficile infection.

From: Clostridioides difficile exploits toxin-mediated inflammation to alter the host nutritional landscape and exclude competitors from the gut microbiota

Fig. 1

a Schematic depicting experimental design. All mice (n = 36) received the antibiotic cefoperazone in their drinking water. Subsets of mice were orally gavaged with C. difficile 630Δerm (wild type, n = 12) or C. difficile 630Δerm tcdR::ermB (tcdR, n = 12) via oral gavage after antibiotic treatment. A group of mice were only treated with the antibiotic (no C. diff or uninfected, n = 12). b C. difficile vegetative cell CFUs in feces (wild type n = 7 on day 2 and n = 6 on day 4; tcdR n = 8 on day 2 and n = 6 on day 4, *p = 0.0314). c C. difficile spore CFUs in the feces (wild type n = 8 on day 2 and n = 6 on day 4; tcdR n = 8 on day 2 and n = 6 on day 4). d Toxin activity in the cecal content of mice (wild type n = 6 on day 2 and n = 5 on day 4; tcdR n = 4 on day 2 and n = 5 on day 4). For wild type vs. tcdR on day 2, p = 0.0248. For wild type vs. tcdR on day 4, p = 0.02. e Histopathological summary scores of the cecum (n = 6 mice per group per day). f Representative images of H&E stained ceca from mice in e; scale bar, 500 μm. Arrow heads indicate epithelial damage. The H&E staining was performed on each mouse ceca. All data in (b–e) are presented as the mean and error bars indicate SEM. Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s correction for multiple comparisons was used to test for statistical significance in (b), (c), and (d). Geissner-Greenhouse corrected ordinary Two-Way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test was used in (e).

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