Impairment of the intestinal epithelium barrier through alteration of proliferation and differentiation balance in alcohol use disorder

Figure 3 Cell composition of the crypts. A: Multiplex immunofluorescence of duodenal biopsy from healthy and alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients. OLFM4 (yellow) marks stem and stem-like cells, CHGA (red) labels enteroendocrine cells, lysozyme (purple) identifies Paneth cells, DAPI (blue) marks nuclei; B: Quantification of the number of crypts containing at least one CHGA⁺ cell. The percentage of CHGA⁺ crypts was increased in both AUD subgroups compared with healthy controls. For each patient, 5-10 crypts were analyzed; C: Quantification of CHGA⁺ in each crypt. The number of CHGA⁺ cells per crypt was significantly higher in both AUD normal and AUD altered patients. Data are presented as mean ± SD. Each dot on the bar graphs represents one patient. Scale bar (200 μm). Healthy (n = 6); AUD normal (n = 6); AUD altered (n = 6). AUD: Alcohol use disorder.