Fig. 5. LEC fate is lost in QPC null embryos.

(A to B′′′) Lineage tracing analysis using Prox1CreERT2 mice crossed to QPC^f/f;RosamTmG. A low dose of tamoxifen is injected at E9.5, and embryos are harvested at E12.5. As expected, in QPC^f/+embryos, few GFP⁺ cells colocalize with Prox1 (A to A′′′); however, in QPC^f/f mutant littermates, some of the GFP⁺ cells were negative for Prox1 (arrows), confirming their loss of LEC fate (B to B′′′). GFP⁺ Prox1⁻ cells were quantified and shown as percentage of GFP⁺ cells in each group (C). Each data point represents a biological replicate. All results are presented as means ± SEM and analyzed by two-tailed Student’s t test. Scale bar, 50 μm (n = 3).