Fig. 5: Piezo1 ablation exaggerates stress vesicle formation.

a Schematic representation of the experimental design to conditionally ablate Piezo1 expression in basal epidermal cells and observe its effect on stress vesicle formation. b Representative images of basal epidermal cells from control and Piezo1 conditional knockout (cKO) mouse back skin, visualized before and immediately after mechanical force application. Scale bar: 10 µm. c Quantification of the fraction of basal epidermal cells with stress vesicles. Data are from N = 5 pairs of control and Piezo1 cKO mice. Statistical analysis: two-tailed unpaired t-test. d Schematic strategy to capture calcium dynamics in control and Piezo1 cKO mouse skin immediately after application of positive pressure. e Representative images of calcium signals at the basal layer of the skin from control and Piezo1 cKO mice, taken before (1^st frame) and after the application of positive pressure. Scale bar: 20 µm. f Quantification of calcium signal intensity in basal epidermal cells from control and Piezo1 cKO mice after application of positive pressure, as a function of time. Each line shows representative measurements from individual cells. Data are from N = 8 control and 8 Piezo1 cKO mice, n = 15 and n = 15 image stacks analyzed. g Schematic strategy to visualize cell behaviors following mechanical stress applications in control and Piezo1 cKO mice. h Representative images of photo-activated basal epidermal cells and their tracked behaviors in control and Piezo1 cKO epidermis after application of negative pressure. Scale bar: 10 µm. i Quantification of the ratio of cell proliferation and differentiation in the epidermis of control and Piezo1 cKO mouse back skin. Data are from N = 5 control and 5 Piezo1 cKO mice, n = 25 and n = 29 image stacks analyzed. Statistical analysis: two-tailed unpaired t-test.