Fig. 1.

Tgfbr2 conditional deletion in K14-expressing cells results in progressive periorbital tissue expansion with narrowing of the palpebral fissure. (A) Triple transgenic mice were obtained by crossing Tgfbr2^flox/flox mice with R26R-eYFP^{flox-STOP-flox} mice and K14-Cre mice. (B) External appearance of K14-Cre×Tgfbr2^+/+×R26R-eYFP^{flox-STOP-flox} wild-type and K14-Cre×Tgfbr2^flox/flox×R26R-eYFP^{flox-STOP-flox} (Tgfbr2 cKO) eyes showing representative examples of mice with an asymptomatic, a moderate and a severe phenotype. Asterisks indicate that the lens is autofluorescent. (C,D) YFP-positive and YFP-negative cells were isolated by FACS from dissected eyes of cKO mice and subjected to mRNA extraction and qPCR. Fluorescence in the PerCP channel was used to exclude autofluorescence. Data represent the mean±s.d.; Student's t-test, *P=0.007.