Reduced survival of <i>Mmp7</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice upon oral but not parenteral infection.

<p>Survival curves of wild type (black circle and solid line) and <i>Mmp7</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice (open circle and dotted line) infected (<i>A</i> and <i>B</i>) by oral gavage or (<i>C</i> and <i>D</i>) intraperitoneally (i.p.) with MAdV-1 as follows: (<i>A</i>) 1x10⁴ i.u. (n = 10), (<i>B</i>) 1x10⁵ i.u. (n = 20, combined from two independent experiments), (<i>C</i>) 1x10² i.u. (n = 8), and (<i>D</i>) 1x10³ i.u. (n = 8). *P<0.05, ***P<0.001, unmarked curves were not significant (P>0.05). (<i>E</i> and <i>F</i>) Gross anatomy of representative <i>Mmp7</i>^-/- (<i>E</i>) and wild type (<i>F</i>) mice 11 d p.i. with 1x10⁵ i.u. of MAdV-1 by oral gavage. Arrow in (<i>E</i>) points to a yellow discolored segment of bowel. Insets show a yellow discolored segment of small bowel (<i>E</i>) or normal bowel (<i>F</i>) from these mice after flushing the lumen with PBS. (<i>G</i>) Representative H&E-stained section at 20× magnification from an <i>Mmp7</i>^<i>-/-</i> mouse with a yellowish, dilated small intestine showing an area with villus blunting and death of enterocytes (arrows) adjacent to intact cells.