Figure 5. Quantification of CBC cell depletion, followed by recovery in the ileum of irradiated mice.

Lgr5-EGFP mice were irradiated (or not) with a dose of 6 Gy of Cs¹³⁷ to the whole body. They were then administered BrdU in drinking water for 5 days and killed 2, 5, 14 and 23 days post irradiation. (a) Temporary decrease followed by recovery in GFP expression in the crypt epithelium of irradiated mice. (b) Transient irradiation-induced depletion in CBC cells (dark blue) but not cp4 cells (turquoise blue) 2 days post irradiation. (c) Similar rates of BrdU incorporation (day 5) and BrdU dilution (day 14) in CBC cells (red) and cp4 cells (purple) in irradiated versus control mice. Note that 2 days post irradiation, 100% of surviving CBC cells were Ki67⁺ BrdU⁺. Data are presented as mean with error bars. Error bars with * (n=3) correspond to standard deviations and bars without * (n=2) indicate the range. The values obtained from distinct mice for the same time point (see Supplementary Tables S2-S5) were compared using Fisher's exact test.