Fig. 5: Effect of whey protein intervention on the recovery of intestinal microbial structure in DEX-administered mice.

a Venn diagram showing shared operational taxonomic units (OTUs) between mice in continuous administration (D₊D₊,10 mice), natural recovery (D₊D_-,10 mice), and whey protein intervention (D₊W₊,10 mice) groups at the 3rd week after dexamethasone discontinuation. The alpha diversity of the microbiota, presented as the Shannon index b, PD_whole_tree c, observed species d, and Chao1 richness estimator e between mice in control, D₊D₊, D₊D_-, and D₊W₊ groups at the 3rd week after dexamethasone discontinuation. f–h Shifts in the gut microbiota of mice between different treatment groups revealed by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Relative abundance of gut microbiota in each group at phylum i and genus levels j. Values are means ± sem. Differences were assessed by independent sample t-test and denoted as follows: ns, no statistical differences; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001. The definition of the box plot b–e: The center line represents the median (second quartile), and the box start and end points represent the first and third quartiles.