Fig. 4. The protective capacity of the adoptive transfer of L. rhamnosus-treated BMDC is abolished after pharmacological inhibition of autophagy (A) Experimental protocol used for the murine model of acute colitis in BALB/c mice induced by intrarectal administration of TNBS (105 mg/Kg) and adoptive transfer of BMDCs (B) Body weight loss (as a percentage of the initial weight) (C) Macroscopic evaluation of colonic inflammation (Wallace score) (D) Histologic evaluation of colonic inflammation (Ameho score) (E) Representative histological sections (stained by May Grünwald Giemsa, 100X magnification) of mice treated (TNBS) or not (Healthy mice) with TNBS, and IP treated with L. rhamnosus-pulsed or not BMDCs, treated or not with 3-MA (F) Plasmatic IL-6 concentrations, measured two days after colitis induction by ELISA (G) Gene expression of cxcl2, il6, tnfa, and il1b from colonic samples. Values are expressed as the relative mRNA levels of samples compared with colons from healthy mice. The data represent the mean values of each group (n=10) ± SEM. * and # refer to the comparison of BMDCs-treated groups versus TNBS control group or TNBS group versus healthy mice, respectively; ^# or *p<0.05, **or ^## p<0.01, ^*** p<0.001.