Fig. 6
Colonic epithelial recovery after tissue injury was decreased in old mice with acute DSS colitis. a Representative images of the mouse colons after sacrifice. b The mouse-colon length after sacrifice (control mice, n = 4; DSS-treated mice, n = 6). c The relative colon length in the young+DSS and old+DSS group relative to the control groups (DSS-treated mice, n = 6). d The disease activity index (DAI) is composed of the change in body weight, diarrhea, and hematochezia (young+DSS vs. old+DSS group; control mice, n = 4; DSS-treated mice, n = 6). e Percentage change in the relative body weight (young+DSS vs. old+DSS group). f Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections of colon and sum of histological colitis score (control mice, n = 4; DSS-treated mice, n = 4). g, h mRNA expression of TGF-β, Smad3, p16INK4 of the mouse colon crypts (n = 6) i Flow cytometric analysis of the cells from mouse colon crypts. Representative plots for Ly6a/Sca-1 positive cell population (control mice, n = 4; DSS-treated mice, n = 4). All data are reported as the mean ± SEM (standard error of the mean). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001