Severe immune cell infiltration in the pancreas of TLR4-deficient NOD mice.

<p>Thin sections of pancreatic tissue from 120^+/+ and TLR4^−/− mice were stained for insulin and counterstained with hematoxylin. The micrographs show representative pancreatic tissue sections with areas of insulin containing beta cells stained in brown and regions infiltrated by immune cells (blue areas, asterisks) (<b>a</b>). The degree of islet infiltration was assessed morphometrically by determining the islet area occupied by infiltrating immune cells as percent of the whole islet area (<b>b</b>). The numbers of islets with a certain degree of infiltration from all examined animals of each genotype (TLR4^+/+ and TLR4^−/−) were added and expressed as cumulative proportions of afflicted islets. The number of all investigated islets of each genotype was set 100%. Per genotype 140–220 islets from 4–5 animals were evaluated. *<i>p</i><0.05; **<i>p</i><0.01.