Fig. 2

Oral EGCG alleviated DSS-induced experimental colitis. a Diagram illustrating the mouse model of colitis employed in this study. Oral phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) treatments are indicated. b Kinetics of daily disease activity index (DAI) scores throughout the entire duration of the study. c Daily body weight changes throughout the entire duration of the study. Data were presented as means ± SEM (n = 7–8 per group). Statistical significance was determined using one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey test. **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001 relative to Oral-CON group; ##P ≤ 0.01, ###P ≤ 0.001 relative to DSS + Oral-PBS group. d Macroscopic pictures of colons and e the lengths of colon from each group (n = 7–8 per group). f H&E stained colon sections and g histological scores of colons (n = 6 per group). Concentrations of four representative pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-1β (h), IL-6 (i), IL-8 (j), and TNF-α (k) in the plasma. Concentrations of myeloperoxidase (MPO) (l), IL-6 (m), and TNF-α (n) in the colon. Data were presented as means ± SEM (n = 7–8 per group). Statistical significance was determined using one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey test. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001