Figure 7

Severity of T cell transfer induced colitis is independent of α7nAChR signaling. Naïve T cells isolated by cell sorting from WT mice, were adoptively transferred i.p. in Rag1^−/−α7nAChR^−/− or Rag1^−/−α7nAChR^+/+ littermates control mice. (A) Body weight loss was assessed twice per week. Statistical significance was determined using a multivariate linear model after a post-hoc Bonferroni-Holm correction for body weight changes and stool consistency score (ns, not significant). (B) Five weeks after adoptive transfer, mice were sacrificed and disease severity was additionally assessed by means of colon length and spleen weight. (C) Inflammatory gene expression was measured by q-PCR in the colon. Gene expression levels are shown relative to rpl32 mRNA expression. (D) Frequencies and numbers of T helper cell and Treg subsets were assessed in the colon by flow cytometry. Dots represent individual mice. Data expressed as mean ± SEM are representative of 3 independent experiments. Statistical significance was determined with the unpaired Student t-test for colon length, spleen weight, gene expression level and flow cytometry analysis (ns, not significant).