Figure 7.

Disrupted clonal patterns of corneal epithelial cells in Pax6^+/−/Gli3^+/− double heterozygotes. A: Representative images of X-Gal stained corneal epithelia from XLacZ transgenic females that are either wildtype, heterozygous for Pax6 or Gli3 alone, or double heterozygotes. The normal patterns of radial striping in wild-types and disrupted striping in Pax6^+/− have been published previously [8,23]. Pax6^+/+ Gli3^+/− corneas were found to be relatively normal, but Pax6^+/− Gli3^+/− double heterozygotes were very highly affected, with loss of striping and presence of much smaller disrupted patches of cells. B: The corrected mean patch number around the circumference, an estimate of the number of active clones of limbal stem cells, in corneas of different genotypes expressed per millimeter of the corneal circumference as mean±C.I. Scale bar in A=1 mm; * represents p<0.05; ns=not significant.