Fig. 4

Stratification of samples by bacterial load and A CpG DNA content or B Gram-negative bacteria. Control and NEC samples are stratified by bacteria per gram of faeces (x axis) and A the occurrences of CpG DNA per gram of faeces (y axis) and B number of Gram-negative bacteria per gram of faeces (y axis). The solid diagonal lines indicate the relationship established between each pair of factors for control infants using linear regression. The interquartile range (IQR) of the deviation of control samples from the regression line is indicated by dashed lines. Stars indicate NEC cases identified as either having particularly low CpG DNA per gram of faeces or particularly high abundances of Gram-negative bacteria compared to control infants, as defined by being outside the IQR of the control samples