FIGURE 7.

Epithelial cell loss in CCKO mammary glands is due to premature sloughing. Immunofluorescence staining (red) in 5-μm thick sections from representative control and CCKO mammary alveoli at lactation day 13, depicting the expression and cellular localization of Cdc42 (a and b), cytokeratin 8 (c and d), and cleaved caspase 3(e and f). Arrowheads point to prematurely sloughed cells. Nuclei are stained blue. Dashed lines outline representative alveoli. L marks the central lumen of an alveolus. Scale bars represent 50 μm. The results are representative of the analysis of >3 mice each from control and CCKO groups.