Intermittent fasting exacerbates colon inflammation by promoting Th17 cell differentiation through inhibition of gut microbiota-derived indoleacrylic acid

Figure 1 Intermittent fasting induces intestinal inflammation. A: Mice were divided into normal control (NC) and intermittent fasting (IF) groups; B: IF mice had significantly lower weight gain compared to NC mice; C: IF colon length was significantly lower than control mice; D: Hematoxylin-eosin staining and alcian blue-periodic acid-Schiff staining showed significant inflammatory cell infiltration of colon tissue and number of goblet cells; E: The expression of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 were significantly higher than the NC group, while IL-10 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. ^aP < 0.05. ^bP < 0.01. ^cP < 0.001. NC: Normal control; IF: Intermittent fasting; HE: Hematoxylin-eosin; AB-PAS: Alcian blue-periodic acid-Schiff staining; IL: Interleukin; TNF: Tumor necrosis factor.