Fig 2: The protective effects of (A, B) on the intestinal barrier. For immunofluorescence staining of ZO-1, OCLN (red colour) in jejunum tissue, stained slides with the CON, SCO, DPZ, DSS and FMT groups. Immunofluorescence staining of ZO-1 (A) and OCLN (B) was observed under a fluorescence microscope at ×10 magnification (bar = 200μm) and ×20 magnification (bar = 100μm). ZO-1 (C) and OCLN (D) was represented by fluorescence quantitative statstics (n =3), *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, vs. CON, ## p < 0.01, ### p < 0.001, vs. SCO.

Fig 3: Western blot analysis shows the expression of PPAR-γ (A), ZO-1 and OCLN (C) in gut and LXR (B) together with ZO-1 and OCLN (D) in hippocampus tissues of each experimental group. Densitometry analysis of the Western blot band of PPAR-γ, LXR, ZO-1 and OCLN used Quantity One (n = 3). The relative ratio of PPAR-γ, LXR, ZO-1 and OCLN was represented by densitometric analysis. *p < 0.05, vs. CON; # p < 0.05, ### p < 0.001 vs. SCO in PPAR-γ R; *p < 0.05 vs. SCO in LXR; *p < 0.05 vs. SCO in ZO-1, # p < 0.05, ## p < 0.01 vs. SCO in OCLN.

Fig 4: Effects of CP and CPCB on metabolites in the cecal contents. (A) The mRNA levels of tight junction proteins (ZO-1, OCLN, and CLDN1) in the cecum. (B) The protein levels of tight junction proteins (ZO-1, OCLN, and CLDN1) in the cecum. (C) Immunofluorescence staining analysis of ZO-1 (green) protein expression in the cecum; blue fluorescence represents the nucleus (Bar, 50 μm), yellow arrows: ring-like structure of ZO-1 in the cecum. (D) The mRNA level of MUC 1 in the cecum. (E–I) The concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-13, IL-4, deoxycholic acid (DCA), chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), acetic acid, propanoic acid, butyric acid, and GPR43 in the cecal contents. CON: control; CP: coprophagy prevention; CPCB: CP + C. butyricum. Data are presented as the means ± standard deviations; n = 6. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001.

Fig 5: Effect of LSD1 overexpression on host cell receptors implicated in HCV entry. Blots were subjected to densitometry and plotted in expression histograms representing the relative OCLN (A1) or CD81 (B1) relative expression over β-actin loading control. Expression values of the control (black bar) were arbitrarily set as 1-fold and the values in Hu1b cells were calculated as fold of this. Representative immunoblot of OCLN (A2) and CD81 (B2) protein expression in LSD1-expressing cells and controls.