The healthy large intestine is covered by mucins, which act as a barrier to limit bacterial interaction with the intestinal epithelium.35 However, in IBD there are marked disruptions of the intestinal mucin, which allow for increased interaction of the bacteria with the intestinal epithelium, which may induce a flare.36–39 In our model, we first assessed mucin changes using a PAS-Alcian blue stain of intestinal sections. This evidence concerns the gene MUC5AC and inflammatory bowel disease.