Fig. 1

Chronic AIEC LF82, but not C. albicans, administration worsened intestinal fibrosis in DSS-induced chronic colitis in mice. a Illustration of the experimental design of DSS-induced chronic colitis. Wild-type mice (n = 5–10 mice/group) received 2.5% DSS in drinking water in three cycles (5 days of DSS followed by 7 days of drinking water) and were orally administered LF82 (3 × 10⁸) or C. albicans (10⁷) once at the beginning of each week or each cycle, respectively. b Body weight change (percentage of initial weight) of different groups (from week 0 to week 5). Data are means ± SEM; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 for DSS-exposed mice vs. mice receiving drinking water; ^#P < 0.05, ^####P < 0.0001 for colonized vs. non-colonized mice receiving DSS (two-way ANOVA test with a Bonferroni post hoc correction). c Quantification of E. coli or C. albicans (CFU/mg) in culture of faeces recovered from mouse groups on different days. d Representative images and quantification of Masson’s trichrome staining of colonic tissue sections. Orange arrows indicate collagen deposition (green) in the colonic submucosa and mucosa. e Colonic gene expression of Col1a1, Col3a1, Fn1 and Vim. Results correspond to fold-increase when compared to mice receiving drinking water and are expressed as means ± SEM; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 for colonized vs. non-colonized mice receiving DSS (Mann–Whitney U test)