NADPH oxidase-1 deficiency offers little protection in Salmonella typhimurium-induced typhlitis in mice

Figure 1 The CFU and pathology in the cecum between Nox1-knockout and wild-type mice with 4 different doses of S. Tm. A: Scatter plot of log10 transformed S. Tm CFU per gram recovered from cecal contents from WT (Nox1+) and Nox1-KO mice inoculated with 2 × 10⁶, 5.6 × 10⁷, 2 × 10⁸ and 6.2 × 10⁸ of S. Tm. The contents were plated so that 1 colony would yield a count ≥ 1 × 10⁶ CFU/g. Zero colonies were assigned to 1 × 10⁶ to include all mice analyzed in the panel. “a” indicates a significant difference between the Nox1 and WT groups treated with 2 × 10⁶ S. Tm (colon-P = 0.0068; cecum-P = 0.0098); B: Scatter plot of pathology scores of mice from the groups shown in A. The groups with different letter designations in each figure are different, where a > b (α = 0.05). The groups sharing a same letter are not different; e.g., ab is not different from a or b group. Horizontal bars indicate mean ± SD; C, D: Show the worst pathology identified in Nox1-KO and WT cecum, respectively (score = 6), for mice inoculated with the lowest (2 × 10⁶) CFU. Both groups show edema and infiltration between the muscular layers (M) and the glands. The glands are devoid of goblet cells and generally distorted. Scale bars are approximately 0.5 mm. Nox1-KO: Nox1-knockout; WT: Wild-type.

Figure 2 Goblets per colon (A) and cecum gland (B) counted from cross sections stained with Alcian blue and nuclear fast red (C). Each point in panels A and B represents a separate gland. Between 3-15 and 7-14 glands (obtained from 8 WT and 9 Nox1-KO mice) were counted from colon and cecum, respectively. Scale bar approximately 0.5 mm. "a" indicates a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups.

Figure 3 Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of cecum mRNA from the 2 × 10⁶ CFU-treated wild-type and Nox1-knockout mice to measure inflammation markers IL-β (A), TNF-α (B), a brush border marker for the integrity of the epithelium, Alpi (C); and Duox2 levels (D). Horizontal bars are mean ± SD. The groups with different letter designations in each figure are different, where a > b > c (α = 0.05). The groups sharing a same letter are not different; e.g., bc is not different from b or ab group. Nox1-KO: Nox1-knockout; WT: Wild-type.