Fig. 2

Probiotics ameliorated NEC injury. a Diagram of the experimental design performed in SPF 6 ~ 7-day-old C57BL/6 mice. b Survival curve of newborn mice with NEC (n = 9 ~ 10 per group, representative data from three independent experiments). c Percentage of initial weight (n = 5 ~ 6 per group, representative data from three independent experiments). d Representative hematoxylin and eosin staining sections of the terminal ileum from PBS- or probiotic-treated mice with NEC. e Histological score measuring the severity of tissue lesions in the terminal ileum (data were pooled from three independent experiments). f Real-time qPCR demonstrating the expression of pro-inflammatory genes in the terminal ileum (Ctrl, dam-fed mice; data shown as fold change relative to Ctrl, n = 5 ~ 6 per group, representative data from three independent experiments). Data are expressed as mean values ± SD. Statistical analyses were performed with Student’s two-tailed unpaired t-test in (e) or one-way ANOVA in (f) or two-way ANOVA in (c). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. Scale bars represent 50 μm in (d)