Figure 2.

Duodenal and jejunal epithelial cells in Gata4 cKI mice express normal levels of GATA4. (A) Immunohistochemistry showed nuclear GATA4 protein (brown staining) in duodenal and jejunal epithelium of Gata4 cKI mice at similar staining intensity compared with controls. Sections from at least 3 control and 3 Gata4 cKI animals were evaluated. Hematoxylin was used to counterstain tissue. Scale bars: 100 μm. (B) qRT-PCR showed that Gata4 mRNA was unchanged in epithelial cells of the duodenum and jejunum of ROSA26^lnlG4/+Villin-Cre (designated Gata4 cKI) mice compared with control mice (ROSA26^lnlG4/+) (n = 3 per genotype; experiments performed in triplicate). Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase was used for normalization. Error bars show SEM. P values were determined by 2-sample Student t test. (C) Immunoblot analysis of nuclear extracts from duodenal and jejunal epithelial cells of control and Gata4 cKI mice was used to quantify GATA4 protein (n = 3 per genotype). To quantify protein expression, signal was measured using quantitative infrared immunoblotting (LI-COR) and National Institutes of Health ImageJ software. GATA4 protein levels were normalized to TATA binding protein (TBP) levels. GATA4 expression was unchanged in duodenum and jejunum of Gata4 cKI animals compared with control. Molecular weight marker locations are indicated. Error bars show SEM. P values were determined by 2-sample Student t test.