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Figure 1


Fig. 1. Late stage Fgf9-/- embryos were disproportionately shortened when compared with littermate controls. (A) Whole-mount photograph of dissected gastrointestinal tracts of E18.5 Fgf9-/- and Fgf9+/- littermates. The small intestines are indicated by the broken yellow boxes and the site of cecal development by the yellow arrows. The colons are towards the right of the small intestines. (B) Quantification of the mean small intestinal lengths (±s.d.) of E12.5, E14.5, E16.5 and E18.5 Fgf9-/- embryos normalized to control littermates (100%). Controls are wild-type and Fgf9+/- littermates; n=5-7 embryos/group. An asterisk indicates the difference of the means is statistically significant (when compared with controls at the same time point) by Student's t-test (P<0.01). (C) Quantification of the mean small intestinal calibers measured at the mid-point of the proximal third, middle third and distal third (±s.d.) of E18.5 control and Fgf9-/- embryos. No statistically significant differences were observed between these two groups. (D) Hematoxylin and Eosin stained cross-section of control and Fgf9-/- E18.5 proximal small intestines showing premature formation of crypt-like structures in Fgf9-/- mice that were not observed in controls (shown at higher magnification on the right). (E) No other morphological differences were noted, including restriction of BrdU-positive cells to the intervillus epithelium. (F) Quantification of mean number of goblet and enteroendocrine cells per 100 epithelial cells (±s.d.) in proximal, middle and distal small intestines of E18.5 control and Fgf9-/- mice. No statistically significant differences were observed between these two groups. (G) Immunohistochemically stained sections of E18.5 control (top) and Fgf9-/- (bottom) littermates showing that I-fabp (left panels) in the proximal small intestines and Ilbp (right panels) in the distal small intestines were expressed at detectable levels in villus enterocytes of controls but not Fgf9-/- embryos. Scale bars: 100 µm in D; 30 µm in D (higher magnification), E,F.