TGF-β, IL-10 and IL17A in colon and spleen are correlated with inflammatory parameters.

Mice were treated with DSS or the DSS/Candida combination as described in the legend of Figure 2. Sample size (number of animals): control groups (3), DSS groups (5), DSS/Candida groups (10-11). Cytokine levels were determined in lysates of spleen and proximal colon. IL10, IL-17A, IL-6, TNF, IFN-γ, IL-1β and TGF-β cytokine levels in spleen lysates (A) and lysates of the proximal colon (B). Bars and error bars show the mean and standard deviation of the indicated groups and data points resembling individual mice are plotted. A one-way ANOVA test with Holm-Sidak correction for multiple comparisons was applied to determine statistical significance. *: p<0.05, **: p<0.01, ***: p<0.005, ****: p<0.001, C: Clustering analysis of all cytokine data. Each vertical column represents one animal and its respective cytokine values. The average value of the wild type and Btk-/- control groups was set at 0 and DSS and DSS/Candida data were expressed as relative log values. Color codes of relative log values ranging from -10 to 10 are indicated in the legend. D, E: Significantly correlated data after Pearson analysis of cytokine data versus colon length or spleen weight. For wild type animals, spleen TGF-β correlated with colon length and spleen weight and colon IL-10 correlated with colon length (D). For Btk-/- animals, spleen IL-17A correlated with both colon length and spleen weight, while colon IL-17A was correlated with colon length (E).