Fig. 4

Antibacterial effects of ursodiol on ESBL-EAEC and suppression of specific LPS-induced inflammation in Caco-2 cells. a Ursodiol inhibited ESBL-EAEC strain growth in vitro. Growth kinetics of E. coli 1587 over a 24-h culture period. Growth curves were acquired in LB medium with DMSO and addition of different concentrations of ursodiol. Data are presented as means ± SEM from triplicate experiments. Statistical significance was determined using two-way ANOVA. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001 relative to the ursodiol-treated (0.3 g/L) group. b Ursodiol administration blocked cell adherence of E. coli 1587 and E. coli K12. c Morphology of Caco-2 cells treated with LPS component extracted from strain 1587. Relative mRNA expression levels of five representative inflammatory cytokines and TGR5, IL-1β (d), IL-6 (e), TNF-α (f), TGF-β (g), IL-10 (h), TGR5 (i) in the cells. j Western blot analysis of NF-κB pathway activation and cell tight junctions. Relative fold changes of p-IκBα (k) and occludin (l) are presented as means±SEM. Statistical significance was analyzed using unpaired t-tests. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001. All experimental data are representative of three independent experiments with similar results