Hematoxylin–eosin staining assay and intraepithelial lymphocytes number

The small intestine tissues in same location were fixed with Bouin Fixative Solution for 24 h, embedded in paraffin, and sectioned at 4-μm thickness. The sections were placed on glass slides. Hematoxylin–eosin staining was applied to the paraffin sections, then observing and taking photographs under optical microscope (OLYMPUS CX23). The number of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) were counted in every 100 epithelial cells under the same multiple light microscope amongst ten pictures from each group [24].