Fig. 4: Eosinophil-driven goblet cell induction promotes innate defence against enteric pathogens.
From: Eosinophils drive intestinal remodelling and innate defence in reproduction
a, Schematic of the experiment of oral infection of lactating dams and controls with foodborne pathogens. b,c, Infection with 2 × 107 Y. pseudotuberculosis. b, Left, faecal burden at 6 h for control (n = 15) and lactating (n = 23) mice. Right, kinetics for control (n = 13, 12, 12 for days 1, 2, 3) and lactating (n = 13, 13, 20 for days 1, 2, 3) mice. c, Dissemination at day 3. Top, frequency of mice with detectable pathogen. Bottom, splenic burden. n = 24 control mice; n = 20 lactating mice. d,e, Infection with 106 L. monocytogenes. d, Left, faecal burden at 6 h (n = 9). Right, kinetics for control (n = 9, 8, 9 for days 1, 2, 3) and lactating (n = 9) mice. e, Dissemination at day 3. Top, frequency of mice with detectable pathogen. Bottom, pathogen burden (n = 9). f–h, Infection with 106 S. Typhimurium. f, Left, faecal burden at 6 h (n = 15). Right, kinetics for control (n = 9, 8, 10 for days 1, 2, 5) and lactating (n = 6, 6, 12 for days 1, 2, 5) mice. g, Dissemination at day 5 for control (n = 15) and lactating (n = 14) mice. h, Survival curves. i–m, Eosinophil depletion using anti-CCR3 in timed-pregnant dams followed by infection with Y. pseudotuberculosis (j,k) or S. Typhimurium during lactation (l,m). j, Left, faecal burden at 6 h for control mice (n = 10) and mice given an isotype (n = 11) or anti-CCR3 (n = 12) antibody. Right, kinetics for control mice (n = 10, 5, 8 for days 1, 2, 3) and mice given an isotype (n = 11) or anti-CCR3 (n = 12, 13, 12 for days 1, 2, 3) antibody. k, Dissemination at day 3. Top, frequency of mice with detectable pathogen. Bottom, splenic burden. n = 19 for control, n = 18 for isotype, n = 24 for anti-CCR3. l, Faecal burden at 6 h for control mice (n = 15) and mice given an isotype (n = 15) or anti-CCR3 (n = 16) antibody. m, Dissemination at day 3 for control mice (n = 15) and mice given an isotype (n = 15) or anti-CCR3 (n = 16) antibody. Data are pooled from at least two independent experiments. Each dot represents an individual mouse (except kinetics). Error bars are the mean ± s.d. Significance analysis: two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test (b–h), one-way ANOVA (j–m) or Fisher’s exact test for frequency (c). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. Icons in a and i created in BioRender; Huang, C. https://BioRender.com/pmrvxbl (2026).
