Fig. 2

The severity of cyst infection is closely related to the gut microbiota. A Illustration of FMT experiments. Feces were collected from mice infected with ME49 or Δα-amy cysts on days 10. SPF mice that had been treated with an antibiotic solution (ATB) for 3 days underwent FMT. One day after FMT, the mice were infected with 50 cysts of ME49. B Body weight changes of mice infected with cysts of the indicated strains for 10 days. Statistical significance was determined using two-way ANOVA. ***p < 0.001 compared with the ME49-FMT group. C Survival curves of the ME49-FMT and Δα-amy-FMT groups. ME49 cysts were used to infect ICR mice that underwent FMT from mice infected with ME49 or Δα-amy (50 cysts per mouse, 6 mice for each group), respectively. The survival of mice was monitored for 30 days, and the survival rate was determined using the log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. **p < 0.01 compared with ME49-FMT group. D, E H&E staining of the mouse (n = 5 per group) colon tissue samples (Scale bars = 200 μm, × 10 objective) and histological scores of colonic tissues. Representative images are shown. F–I The levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were measured by ELISA (n = 5 per group). Statistical significance was determined with Student’s t test. **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05. J The expression level of MyD88 was measured by immunofluorescence. MyD88 protein was labelled with a red fluorophore, and the cell nucleus was labelled with a blue fluorophore (Scale bars = 200 μm, × 10 objective). Representative images are shown. K–M The expression levels of p-NF-κB p65 and occludin were measured by Western blotting. β-actin was used as a control. The data are presented as the means ± SEM. Statistical significance was determined with Student’s t test. *p < 0.05. All experimental data are representative of three independent experiments with similar results