Physiological and histological evidence of resistance to DSS-induced colitis in <i>Iqgap2</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice.

<p><b>A.</b> Schema of a DSS treatment experiment. DSS at the concentration of 3% was administered in drinking water for up to 13 days. A separate group of mice was treated with 3% DSS for 13 days and then allowed to recover on regular water for 7 days. <b>B.</b> Baseline body weight of untreated WT and <i>Iqgap2</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice. The difference between genotypes is not statistically significant (p = 0.1059). <b>C.</b> In contrast to the WT control group, <i>Iqgap2</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice did not lose weight as a result of DSS treatment (left panel); after a 7-day recovery period, WT mice restored 95% of their baseline weight before DSS treatment (right panel). Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) differences between genotypes are indicated with asterisks. Resistance of <i>Iqgap2</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice to experimental colitis is also demonstrated by colon length (<b>D</b>) and low colitis disease activity index (DAI) (<b>E</b>). <b>F.</b> Histological evidence (H&E) of the absence of colitis in <i>Iqgap2</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice. While DSS treatment resulted in an expansive colonic epithelium loss (black arrows) in WT colons (panels a, b), <i>Iqgap2</i>^<i>-/-</i> colons were minimally affected (panels c, d). N = 5 per group per experiment; experiment was repeated three times; the results of one representative experiment are shown.