Fig. 1

Oral infection with Δα-amy cysts significantly alleviated T. gondii-induced colitis. A Body weight changes of mice infected with cysts of the indicated strains for 10 days. Statistical significance was determined using two-way ANOVA. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01 compared with the ME49 group. B The survival curves of mice infected with cysts of indicated strains. ME49 and Δα-amy cysts were respectively used to infect ICR mice (50 cysts per mouse, 6 mice for each group) by oral injection, and the survival of mice was monitored for 30 days. The survival rate was determined using the log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. *p < 0.05 compared with the ME49 group. C, D H&E staining of the mice (n = 5 per group) colon tissue samples (Scale bars = 100 μm, × 20 objective) and histological scores of colonic tissues. Representative images are shown. E, H The levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were measured by ELISA (n = 5 per group). The data are presented as the means ± SEM. Statistical significance was determined with Student’s t test. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05. All experimental data are representative of three independent experiments with similar results