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Table 4 Rumen papillae morphology of hay-fed (CON) and high-grain-fed sheep (G7–28)

From: Morphological adaptation of sheep’s rumen epithelium to high-grain diet entails alteration in the expression of genes involved in cell cycle regulation, cell proliferation and apoptosis

Item

Treatments

SEM

Contrast, P

CON

G7

G14

G28

Treatment

Linear

Quadratic

Cubic

Thickness of stratum corneum, μm

21.31b

27.12a

20.26b

26.18a

0.78

< 0.001

< 0.001

< 0.001

< 0.001

Cell layers of stratum corneum, number of cell layers

2.86b

3.13a

2.98ab

2.99ab

0.04

0.004

< 0.001

0.006

< 0.001

Thickness of stratum granulosum/spinosum, μm

87.88a

69.70b

69.28b

88.16a

1.92

< 0.001

0.006

0.410

< 0.001

Thickness of stratum basale, μm

11.50b

10.51b

10.63b

13.66a

0.25

< 0.001

0.002

0.016

0.028

  1. Sheep assigned to CON (n = 5), G7 (n = 5), G14 (n = 5) and G28 (n = 5) received a high-grain diet for 0, 7, 14 and 28 d, respectively
  2. SEM standard error of mean
  3. a, b Means within a row with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05)