Six to ten week old male and female wild type (WT) C57Bl/6 mice and TLR2−/− mice were purchased from Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) as were C3H/HeJ and C3H/HeOuJ (WT controls for C3H/HeJ) mice. Mice that overexpress the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in the small intestinal epithelium were on an FVB/N background, as previously described (21 (link)). JAM-A−/− mice (a generous gift of Dr. Charles Parkos) were on a C57Bl/6 background (22 (link)). Similar to WT mice, Bcl-2 transgenic mice, JAM-A−/− mice, and TLR2−/− mice were six to ten week old and gender matched. All transgenic and knockout mice were compared to WT mice on the same genetic background (i.e. Bcl-2 transgenic mice were compared to WT FVB/N mice and JAM-A−/− mice and TLR2−/− mice were compared to WT C57Bl/6 mice). Mice were kept on a 12 hour light-dark cycle in a dedicated facility managed by the Emory University Division of Animal Resources and received water and mouse chow ad libitum throughout. All experiments were performed in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guidelines for the Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Emory University School of Medicine (Protocol DAR-2002717-042217GN).