What is reported about the statistical significance of ileal ASBT differences between CIE and control dogs?

• A. It reached conventional significance
• B. It was significant only in the colon
• C. It reached significance when pooling data across tissues
• D. It did not reach statistical significance

Answer: (D)

When we compare a biological measure between groups, significance means the observed difference is unlikely to be due to random chance. For ileal ASBT in CIE versus control dogs, the analysis did not show a difference that reached the conventional threshold for significance (p-value not below 0.05). So the data don’t provide strong evidence that ileal ASBT levels differ between the groups.

This could happen for several reasons: the actual difference may be small, there’s substantial variability between dogs, or the sample size isn’t large enough to detect a real difference. In some studies, pooling data across tissues can increase statistical power and reveal an effect that isn’t clear when looking at a single tissue. If that pooling shows significance while the ileum alone does not, it suggests the regional pattern contributes to the overall finding but the ileum itself isn’t showing a robust difference.