Histopathological analyses of murine small intestinal tissue

Post mortem, the entire small intestine was excised and separated longitudinally into two equal parts. The longitudinal section was rolled up, starting with the distal part thereby having the distal ileum at the very inner layer and the proximal intestine at the very outer layer. The entire specimen was fixed in 10% formalin. Paraffin sections were cut and stained with H&E. Histological scoring was performed in a blinded fashion by two independent observers. The histological score displays the combined score of inflammatory cell infiltration and tissue damage as described elsewhere (Adolph et al., 2013).