Fig. 6: Protective effect of MMT@Bac@TL on the intestinal barrier.

a Mucus released by HT29-MTX-E12 cells under 6 hours of incubation with culture medium, Bac, MMT@Bac, MMT@Bac@T, MMT@Bac@L, and MMT@Bac@TL, respectively. Cells without any treatment were set as a control. Scale bar, 200 µm. b, c Levels of acidic (b) and neutral (c) mucin secreted by HT29-MTX-E12 cells under different treatments (n = 6 independent samples). d Ratio of acidic to neutral mucin (n =  6 independent samples). e Confocal images of tight junction expression in LPS pretreated Caco-2 cells after treatment with culture medium, Bac, MMT@Bac, MMT@Bac@T, MMT@Bac@L, and MMT@Bac@TL for 7 hours, respectively. Cells without any treatment were set as a control. Red, green, and blue indicate the signals of occludin, ZO-1, and cell nuclei, respectively. Scale bar, 35 µm. f Images of goblet cells of the colon identified by AB-PAS staining. Scale bar, 60 µm. g Confocal images of colon sections stained with occludin (Red), ZO-1 (Green), and DAPI (Blue). Scale bar, 60 µm. h Mean gray value of goblet cells measured by Image-J (n =  3 independent samples). i, j MFI of occludin (i) and ZO-1 (j) measured by Image-J (n =  3 independent samples). Data are represented as means ± SD. p-values were determined using one-way ANOVA. p-values  < 0.05 are shown. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.