Figure 2. Endothelial Lats1/2 deletion causes dense and hyperplastic vascular network in growing retinal vessels, and their phenotypes are vanished by endothelial Yap/Taz codeletion.

(A) Diagram for EC-specific deletion of Lats1/2 and double deletions of Lats1/2 and Yap/Taz in retinal vessels from P2 and their analyses at P5 in Lats1/2^iΔEC and Lats1/2-Yap/Taz^iΔEC mice. (B and C) Images of CD31⁺ retinal vessels and comparisons of indicated parameters in WT, Lats1/2^iΔEC, and Lats1/2-Yap/Taz^iΔEC mice (n = 4, each group). Scale bars: 500 μm. (D and E) Images and comparisons of CD31⁺ retinal vessels in the vascular front region, ERG⁺ ECs, and pHH3⁺ proliferative ECs in WT, Lats1/2^iΔEC, and Lats1/2-Yap/Taz^iΔEC mice (n = 4, each group). Scale bars: 100 μm. (F) GSEA of isolated lung ECs showing the upregulation of YAP signature genes in Lats1/2^iΔEC compared with WT mice, and corresponding heatmaps of the top 15 enriched genes. ES, enrichment score; NES, normalized enrichment score. (G) GSEA of isolated lung ECs showing the downregulation of YAP signature genes in Lats1/2-Yap/Taz^iΔEC compared with Lats1/2^iΔEC mice, and corresponding heatmaps of the top 15 enriched genes. Error bars represent mean ± SD. *P < 0.05 vs. WT, ^#P < 0.05 vs. Lats1/2^iΔEC by Mann-Whitney U test.