Fig. 5: LPH protects mice from colitis through NOD2-mediated gut homeostasis.

a–e The disease severity of wild-type (WT) or Nod2 knockout (Nod2^−/−) mice pre-treated with BSA or LPH-containing beads (5 mg/kg body weight) for 3 days and then stimulated with TNBS for 4 days: body weight loss (a); colon length (b); serum FITC-dextran level (c); representative H&E staining of colonic tissue, scale bar, 100 μm (d) and the semiquantitative scoring of inflammation (e) of mice from indicated groups. f–i The cytokines in colon tissues were analyzed by ELISA: TNF-α (f), IFN-γ (g), IL-6 (h) and IL-10 (i). j–l Fecal 16 S rRNA microbial analysis: the α-diversity reflected by Chao index (j), the β-diversity calculated from the operational taxonomic unit (k), and the bacterial composition change at the family level (l). In (l), the mean abundance of bacterial composition at the family level according to different groups, all the data are normalized according to column (L1 normalization). Only bacteria that are significantly changed by TNBS, and could be restored by LPH dependent on Nod2 are displayed: ^*p < 0.05 compared with WT-Con, ⁺p < 0.05 compared to WT-TNBS, ^#p < 0.05 compared to Nod2^−/−-Con. Data are representative of 3 independent experiments and presented as mean ± SD. Each dot indicates an individual mouse (n = 6, female). Statistical analyses were performed using repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test (a), two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test (b, c, e, f–i, j). Source data are provided as a Source data file.