Fig. 3.

Epithelial branching patterns in Shhcre;Dicer lungs. Epithelial cells are labeled with anti-E-cadherin antibody. At each stage, control and Shhcre;Dicer mutant lungs are shown at the same magnification. Branching in the mutant was similar to normal control at E12.0 (A and B) but was reduced at E12.5 (C and D) and E13.5 (E and F). The dashed white lines outline the lung lobes. Note that the overall size of the mutant lung lobes was similar to that of controls at all three stages, even though the epithelial surface area was reduced in the mutant at E12.5 and E13.5 because of reduced branching.