Fig. 2

The influence of probiotics on gut barrier and inflammatory-related molecules expression in aged mice. AP: aged control group, YC: young control group, MP: middle-aged group and OC: old control group. (A) In the upper panel, the immunohistochemistry of Occludin expression is depicted, while in the lower panel, the ZO-1 expression in colon tissue of elderly mice that were administered probiotics (from n = 3 sections) (B) Relative mRNA expression levels of inflammatory related molecules in colon tissue. (n = 4 mice in each group) (C) Proinflammatory cytokine expression in the colon tissue of elderly mice that were administered probiotics was compared to that of their respective control groups. (n = 4–5 mice in each group) The results shown in this figure are expressed as the mean ± SEM. An one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the comparisons of more than two groups followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. P < 0.05 *, P < 0.01 **, and P < 0.001 ***