Bicuculline protected the normal intestine of MC38 tumor-bearing mice from fractionated abdominal radiotherapy without affecting its antitumor activity. (A) Schematic diagram of MC38 tumor-bearing mice exposed to fractionated abdominal irradiation. (B) Tumor sizes were measured every other day from days 7 to 21. (C) Immunoblot of PCNA expression in tumors from A at day 21. (D) Representative images of MC38 tumors at day 21. Scale bar, 1 cm. (E) Representative images of H&E staining of the jejunum tissues from mice treated as in A. Scale bar, 100 μm. (F–H) Representative images of KI67 (F), BrdU (G), and OLFM4 (H) staining of the jejunum tissues from mice treated as in A. Scale bar, 50 μm. In B, values are means ± SEM; n = indicated mice per group. ***, P < 0.001 (ANOVA). In E–H, values are means ± SEM; n = indicated mice per group. n.s., not significant; and ***, P < 0.001 (two-tailed Student’s t test). Data are representative of at least two (B–H) independent experiments. Source data are available for this figure: SourceData FS4.