Stress-induced visceral analgesia assessed non-invasively in rats is enhanced by prebiotic diet

Figure 4 Inflammatory scores in distal colon of rats fed either standard or 4% enzyme-treated rice fiber diet and exposed or not (no stress) to repeated water avoidance stress. A-D: Representative histological sections of the rat distal colon stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The arrows point to an area in the lamina propria with inflammatory cell infiltration in stressed rats fed with standard diet (B) that was not observed in non-stressed rats fed with standard (A) or 4% enzyme-treated rice fiber (ERF) (C) diet and stressed rats fed with 4% ERF diet (D). E: Inflammatory scores. Data are expressed as mean ± SE, of number of rats indicated as n in each column. ^aP < 0.05 vs opposite diet same stress status group; unpaired student t test. WAS: Water avoidance stress; a.u.: Arbitrary unit.