Figure 1.
Increased sebaceous gland size in transgenic mice with elevated Edar signalling.
(A–C) Haematoxylin & eosin stained sections of the dorsal region of the hindfeet. A subset of sebaceous glands is indicated by red arrowheads and hair canals by blue arrowheads. (D) Quantification of cross-sectional area of sebaceous glands normalised to hair follicle number. (E) Hair follicle density in wild type and transgenic skin. (F) Quantification of cross-sectional area of sebaceous glands normalised to skin area. Scale bar indicates 50 µm.
Figure 2.
Increased Meibomian gland size in Edar transgenic animals.
(A–C) Oil Red O stained eyelids of wild type, EdarTg951 and EdarTg951/Tg951 animals. Haematoxylin is used as a counterstain to reveal tissue structure. The sebaceous glands of the outer eyelid are above the green line in (A), while the Meibomian gland is below this line. (D) Quantification of Meibomian gland cross-sectional area on sampled slides for each genotype. The difference between wild type and EdarTg951 values did not achieve statistical significance in these analyses. Scale bar indicates 200 µm.
Figure 3.
Sex differences, but not Edar-induced alterations, in tracheal submucosal gland size.
(A–C) Sectioned tracheae stained with Alcian blue and counterstained with nuclear fast red. The cartilage of the trachea and the mucous of the submucosal glands stain blue. Submucosal glands are indicted by red arrowheads in (A), while the cartilages of the trachea are labelled ‘c’. (D) Magnified view of stained wild type tracheal submucosal gland. (E) Quantification of tracheal submucosal gland sizes. Scale bar A–C indicates 200 µm; scale bar D indicates 50 µm.
Figure 4.
Lack of detectable changes to eccrine sweat gland morphology upon elevation of Edar signalling.
(A–C) Haematoxylin and eosin stained ventral hindfoot. Eccrine glands in (A) are indicated by black arrowheads. (D) Quantification of eccrine sweat gland size per unit footpad skin length. Statistical significance was not attained between any two genotypes, nor did combining EdarTg951 and EdarTg951/Tg951 values yield a statistically significant difference when compared to wild type. Scale bar indicates 200 µm.
Figure 5.
Enhanced Edar signalling produces increased epithelial branching of adult salivary glands.
(A–C) Alcian blue and nuclear fast red stained salivary gland sections. (D) Quantification of the epithelial duct proportion of the salivary gland by determination of nuclear fast red stained (denoted NFR+ve) area to total gland area. Scale bar indicates 400 µm.
Figure 6.
Mammary gland branching and epithelial growth extent is stimulated by Edar signalling.
Whole mount stained mammary glands of 6 week old (A) wild type, (B) EdardlJ/dlJ loss of function mutant, (C) EdaTa/Ta loss of function mutant and (D) EdarTg951/Tg951 gain of function transgenic. The lymph node within the fat pad is indicated by a blue arrowhead in (A). (E) Quantification of the extent of mammary epithelial infiltration into the fat pad. (F) Determination of epithelial branching, expressed as the total number of ductal termini per mammary gland for each genotype. Comparison of mutant to transgenic mammary gland morphometric measures gave p-values <0.01. For A-D the black scale bar on the left panels indicates 5 mm and the white scale bar on the right panels indicates 1 mm.