rodentium, qPCR was employed to measure the transcription of various pro- and anti-inflammatory

cytokines. Uninfected MMP-9−/− mice had higher mRNA levels of IL-17 than WT animals (P < 0.05) (Figure 5), but not TNFα, IFNγ, IL-4, IL-10 and FOXP3 (P>0.05). At 10 and 30 days PI, mice had significant increases in IL-17, TNFα and IFNγ (for all P < 0.05), but levels did not differ selleckchem between MMP-9−/− and WT mice (P>0.05). At 30 days PI, both groups of mice demonstrated elevated IL-10 and FOXP3 mRNA (for both P < 0.05), indicating the resolution phase of the infectious colitis. Figure 5 MMP-9 −/− mice demonstrate elevated baseline IL-17 transcription, compared to WT mice. Analysis of mRNA from whole-thickness distal colons obtained from infected and uninfected WT and MMP-9−/− mice for the following genes: IL-17, TNFα, IFNγ, IL-4, IL-10, FOXP3 and click here β–actin (housekeeping gene). *P<0.05 compared to Sham WT; #P<0.05 compared to Sham MMP-9−/−. N = 6-18. The gut microbiome is altered in MMP-9−/− mice Variations in the proportion of C. rodentium in fecal samples were represented in electropherograms with

each of the graphs signifying one mouse. C. rodentium was identified in WT (p i  = 0.67) and MMP-9−/− mice (p i  = 0.07) at 10 days PI and undetectable at 30 days Apoptosis inhibitor PI (Figure 6A) [9]. This observation prompted an evaluation and comparison of the bacterial composition in stool pellets obtained both before and after the enteric infection. Peaks from each of the electropherograms generated were analysed by nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) to screen for microbial community differences between the WT and MMP-9 gene knockout mice (Figure 6B). Multi-response permutation procedure (MRPP) of NMS scores revealed significantly different bacterial communities between WT and MMP-9−/− mice (Table 1). Pair-wise comparisons between experimental groups also revealed that the microbiota of sham infected WT mice differed from that of the C. rodentium-infected WT 10 day group, while no significant changes were observed between sham infected MMP-9−/− and C. rodentium-infected

mice. In addition, all other comparison groups remained unchanged (Table 1). Figure 6 MMP-9 −/− mice have an altered intestinal microbiome and decreased C. rodentium colonization efficiency. (A) T-RFLP was employed Flavopiridol (Alvocidib) to track the colonization of C. rodentium in infected mice by following the presence and intensity of the 118 bp peak on electropherograms (indicated by arrows). (B) Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of terminal restriction fragments from WT and MMP-9−/− mice reveals two distinct microbial communities. N = 15-18. Table 1 Multi-response permutation procedure (MRPP) analysis of wild type (WT) and MMP-9 −/− mice in the absence (Sham) and presence of an enteric bacterial pathogen, C. rodentium (CR) Experimental group p-value Chance-corrected within-group agreement (A) Sham WT vs. Sham MMP-9−/− 0.00003 0.