Figure 3.

Anxa4 promotes airway epithelial progenitor cell migration. (A) Pregnant females carrying Shh^CreER/+; Anxa4^F/+; Rosa26-mTmG (control) and Shh^CreER/+; Anxa4^F/F; Rosa26-mTmG (Anxa4^cKO) embryos were treated with tamoxifen (TAM) at E9.5 and lungs were imaged at E12.5. (B) Representative images of mosaic labeled control and Anxa4^cKO airway bud formation. One tip cells in control and Anxa4^cKO RCd.L1 buds are highlighted by blue and orange, respectively. Scale bar: 50 μm. (C–F) Cell track plots of tip cells in control lung (25 cells) and Anxa4^cKO lungs (16 cells) after aligning their starting positions (C), showing that Anxa4^cKO tip cells had shorter migration tracks and migration displacement than that of control tip cells (C,D); The migration velocity analysis showed that the migration velocity of Anxa4^cKO cells was decreased significantly (E) and the apical-to-basal cell length of Anxa4^cKO cells was similar to that of control cells (F). Data are presented as mean ± SEM; n = 3 samples per genotype; n.s., not significant; ***p < 0.001; Student’s t-test.