Figure 1

Fenestral diaphragms and PLVAP expression in LSEC during liver ontogeny. (a,b) Confocal microscopy analyses of PLVAP and LYVE-1 expression in LSEC during the fetal (E12.5-E18.5) and postnatal (newborn-11 wk) development. Bars, 50 µm (main figures) and 10 µm (insets). (c) Immunoblot analyses of fetal and adult liver lysates (5 µg protein/lane) from wild-type (wt) and Plvap^−/− mice for PLVAP and GAPDH (a house keeping molecule) under non-reducing conditions. The same filter was sequentially probed for PLVAP and GAPDH. Full blots are shown in Suppl. Figure 10. (d) Transmission electron micrographs from LSEC fenestra in fetal and postnatal liver at the indicated ages. Red arrows, diaphragms; red arrowheads, open fenestra. Bars, 40 nm. (e) Electron tomography of a diaphragm in E14.5 fetal liver of wild-type mice. Perpendicular view of the boxed area is shown at a higher magnification in the inset. Bars, 200 nm (inset 20 nm). Shown are representative images (numbers of mice/genotype: n = 3 (a,b), n = 1 (E16.5, 9 wk, 28 wk in d,e), n = 2 (E14.5 wild-type in c, and E12.5 in d), n = 3–4 (E14.5, E18.5, new-born, 2 wk and 5 wk in d), n = 4 (adult wild-type, and E14.5 and adult Plvap^−/− in c).