Exploratory Investigation of Intestinal Structure and Function after Stroke in Mice

Figure 4

Ischemic stroke leads to increased intestine permeability. (a) Quantitative analysis of serum FITC-D as a measure of intestinal barrier functions (). (b) mRNA levels of ZO-1, occludin, and claudin-1 were measured with RT-qPCR and normalized to the expression levels of β-actin (). The results were presented as fold changes relative to the sham group. (c, d) Representative western blots and quantification data of ZO-1, occludin, claudin-1, and GAPDH for each group (). Two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Data were expressed as . , , and . ns: not significant. (e) Representative images of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (magnification ×23000). The ultrastructure of the normal small intestinal mucosa looked like that of sham 1d and sham 7d, including perfect tight junctions (TJ) and normal mitochondria (yellow arrow points to enlarged tight junction, and green arrow points to degenerate mitochondria). Scale bar: 2 μm.

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