Fig. 5

The histological appearance of colon. On day 4 (a-f), the structure of mucous layer was destroyed and goblet cells disappeared in the untreated group (b, denoted by arrowhead); the mice treated with loperamide showed increased number of goblet cells (c, denoted by arrowhead); in the 5% GOS group, some of goblet cells were fused (d, denoted by arrowhead); in the 10% GOS group, no lesions were observed (e); after treated with 15% GOS, congestion and enlarged goblet cells were observed (f, denoted by arrowhead). On day 7 (g-l), in the untreated group, fused goblet cells were observed (h, denoted by arrowhead); treatment with loperamide (i) and 10% GOS (k), the mice showed normal structure of colon; in the 5% GOS and 15% GOS groups, the number of goblet cells was increased (j and l, denoted by arrowhead). a and g, normal structure of colon. Normal, the uninfected-untreated control. Untreatment, the infected-untreated control. Loperamide, the infected group with Loperamide-treatment (10 mg/kg). The 5, 10 and 15% GOS were the infected groups treated with corresponding concentration of GOS at a dose of 10 mL/kg, respectively