Treatment with a Monoclonal Anti-IL-12p40 Antibody Induces Substantial Gut Microbiota Changes in an Experimental Colitis Model

Figure 2

Histology and immunohistochemistry of representative areas of mouse colon. The left panel (a, b, c) shows the histopathological and IHC evaluation of the colon. After H&E staining (a), the 12p40-mAb treated mice had normal morphology as seen in the SCID control mice. Rat-IgG2a and NaCl treated mice had major hyperplasia of the mucosal layer and infiltration of immune cells. The CD3 (b) and calprotectin (c) IHC identify these immune cells as being CD3 or calprotectin positive cells as visualized with the brown DAB staining of the positive cells in the mucosa layer and submucosa. The scale bar indicates 200 μm and all images are captured at 20x magnification. The images are from the mouse with the results representing the group median for the specific staining of the four mice groups. The right panel (d, e, f) depicts the results from the histopathological (d) evaluation using a semiquantitative score (range 0–24). CD3 (e) and calprotectin (f) staining were quantitatively assessed by digital image analysis; data is represented as the density of the IHC reactivity (%).