Figure 1

LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f mice showed splenomegaly and skull overgrowth.

(a) Western blot result showed that Tak1 was deleted in monocytes/osteoclasts of LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f mice. Monocytes were isolated from LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f and control mice and were induced to differentiate into osteoclasts by RANKL and M-CSF for 3 days. The cells were then harvested and cell lysates were analyzed with Western blot to determine the protein levels of Tak1. For the full-length blots see Supplementary Figure S1. (b) LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f mice developed splenomegaly. Spleens were dissected out from 2 month-old LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f and control mice. (c) The abnormal morphology of the skull of the adult LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f mice. (d) LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f mice show enlarged skull bones. Pictures were taken from 2 month-old LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f and control mice. d1, the frontal bone; d2, palatoschisis; d3, occipital bone; d4, verge-interparietal bone; d5, verge-parietal bone; d6, temporal bone frontal bone. (e) Villanueva-goldner's trichrome staining of the calvarial bones of LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f and control mice. Calvarial bones were decalcified, embedded in paraffin, sectioned and stained with Villanueva-goldner's trichrome staining. Images of 4×, 10× and 40× were shown in upper, middle and bottom panels respectively. Arrows indicate bone marrow cavities. (f) LysM-Cre; Tak1^f/f mouse calvarial bones showed an increase in the number of FSP-1 positive fibroblasts. The decalcified calvarial bones were immunostained with anti-FSP-1 antibodies and detected with a DAB substrate kit.