Figure 3.

Prox1^endOE(HG) adult mice exhibit islet hypoplasia. A–C and A′–C′: Immunostaining for insulin (blue) and glucagon (red) showing that the mass of β-cells decreases after P2 in pancreatic specimens from Prox1^endOE mice. C′ is an islet of a Prox1^endOE(HG) mouse. Immunostaining for the pan-islet marker synaptophysin (red) and insulin (blue) showing that at P60, the sizes of islets from control (D) and Prox1^endOE(NG) (F) mice are comparable and the size of islets of Prox1^endOE(HG) mice is abnormally small (E). The white dots demarcate the insulin-positive area. G: Heat map representation of transcripts involved in FGF signaling that were consistently decreased in Prox1^endOE pancreata at P15. “C” and “M” are control (Neurog3-Cre) and Prox1^endOE triplicates. H: qPCR analysis showed that Frs2, Fgf2, and CycD1 transcripts were significantly decreased in Prox1^endOE pancreata at P7 (tissues from litters of parents that consistently produced only hyperglycemic transgenic offspring were used for these experiments). Data represent the mean (±SEM) of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. Scale bars: 25 μm.