Fig. 1.

Adamts17-/- mice display postnatal impairment of skeletal growth. a Generation of Adamts17-flox mice. The diagrams show the Adamts17 genomic locus with exon 4 (Adamts17 locus); Adamts17 targeting vector including the neo-cassette (Targeting Vector); recombination between homologous regions of the targeting vector and the Adamts17 locus, leading to the generation of the Adamts17-targeted allele (Targeted Allele); floxed Adamts17 allele following flippase recombinase target (FRT)-mediated recombination of the Adamts17-targeted allele (Floxed allele); and Adamts17-deleted allele following Cre-mediated recombination of the floxed Adamt17 allele (Deleted allele). H, HindIII; S, SmaI; E, EcoRV; B, BamHI. b Pie chart of the genotypes detected at 7 days of age from intercrosses of Adamts17 ± mice on the C57BL/6 strain. Note the reduced viability of Adamts17-/- mice. c Alizarin Red and Alcian Blue double-staining of the whole skeleton (left), clavicle, upper extremities, and lower extremities (right) of WT and Adamts17-/- (KO) littermates at P0. Scale bars, 2 mm. d Length of clavicles and long bones of WT (n = 5) and KO (n = 6) littermates at P0. e Gross appearance of 12-week-old WT and KO mice. f Time-course of naso-anal length and body weight of male WT and KO mice (n = 6 per genotype). g Bone length of 4-week-old and 12-week-old male WT and KO mice (n = 5 per genotype). Statistical significance was calculated using a two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test. *P < 0.05 between genotypes