Figure 5. Progressive disruption of villus integrity after intestine-specific deletion of Zip4.

Recently weaned mice were injected 3 consecutive days with tamoxifen and the small intestines from control (Con) and Zip4-intestine knockout (Zip4 intest KO) mice (5 mice per group) were harvested on the indicated days after initiation of the knockout. (A) Sections of small intestine were stained with hematoxylin-eosin. Sections from control day 0 and day 6 intestine are shown (2 left side panels), whereas sections from Zip4-intestine knockout days 2–4 and day 6 intestine are shown (4 right side panels). (B) A blow-up view of the Zip-intestine knockout d6. Black arrowheads demarcate examples of cubodial epithelial cells and RBCs in the lamina propria.