AHR and inflammatory bowel disease: To test our hypothesis, we used a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced IBD juvenile mouse model and treated the animals by daily gavage with a plant-derived AHR ligand precursor, indole-3-carbinol (I3C), in combination with zinc-depleted (5 mg/kg), zinc-replete (35 mg/kg), or zinc-supplemented (100 mg/kg) feed as outlined diagrammatically in Fig. 1a.