Laminins protect from inflammation.

<p>(<b>A–B</b>) Histological views of colon tissue (stained with PAS) and expression of LMα5 and LMα1 on cryosections of colon from parental, Tg-<i>lama5</i> or Tg-<i>lama1</i> mice untreated or treated with DSS. This showed that both chains were ectopically expressed in the glandular crypt region in the transgenic animals (arrows) and that LMα1 expression was further extended by DSS treatment. (<b>C</b>) Inflammatory scores (mean +/− SEM; n = 5) assessed on the Swiss-roll of the colon and rectum of transgenic <i>lama5</i> and <i>lama1</i> animals (black columns) as compared to controls (grey columns), all treated with DSS. (<b>D</b>) Levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (mean +/− SEM; n = 6) measured by ELISA in protein extracts from distal colon of DSS-treated parental (grey columns) and DSS-Tg-<i>lama1</i> or DSS-Tg-<i>lama5</i> (black columns) mice. Data were normalized to the mean of parental values as levels of cytokines turned out to be mouse strain-dependent. Statistical differences were compared to parental mice. e: epithelial cells; lp: <i>lamina propria</i>; mm: <i>muscularis mucosae</i>. Nuclei are visualized with DAPI. *<i>p</i><0.05, **<i>p</i><0.01. Scale bars: 50 µm.