MUC2 and infectious otitis media: Consistent with reduced epithelial differentiation, alcian blue staining revealed a reduction in the number of goblet cells, a terminally differentiated epithelial cell type, in colonic sections from AOM/DSS-treated mice compared to the level in control animals (Fig. 3G and H), which correlated with decreased epithelial transcript levels of Muc2 (Fig. 3F).