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. 2008 Jun 18;3(6):e2471. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002471

Figure 7. EGF reverts sFRP-3-induced inhibition of somitic myogenesis.

Figure 7

(A–D) EGF reverts sFRP-3-induced inhibition of somitic myogenesis in explant cultures. MyHC antibody staining on explants cultures of presomitic mesoderm from E9.5 Myf5a2 embryos in the presence of sFRP-3 and EGF proteins. Mesoderm differentiation, which is almost completely abolished in the presence of sFRP-3 protein (A), is partially to fully restored when increasing amount of EGF are added to the culture (B–D: 50, 100 and 200 ng/ml), as revealed by the increasing number of positive MyHC fibers. (E–M) EGF rescues inhibition of myogenesis induced by sFRP-3 in vivo. (F,G) Transplacental delivery of s-FRP3 causes severe malformations of the caudal region of injected embryos. (J–L) Normal embryo morphology is restored when sFRP-3 is co-injected together with EGF, but not with FGF (H; I). (E) Control not-injected embryo. (M) Quantification of injected embryos with their relative phenotype in 3 independent, reproducible experiments.