Fig. 8

Failure in Wnt11 function has an impact on the progenitors of the nephrons and the kidney stroma. Kidneys were prepared from WT and Wnt11-deficient mice, sectioned and subjected to in situ hybridization with the Six2, Hox10 and Foxd1 probes, depicting the nephron and the stromal progenitors, respectively. Six2, which is expressed in the nephron-forming progenitor cells, was severely reduced in the absence of Wnt11 (compare d, j with a, g, arrows). Similarly, Hox10 and Foxd1, which are expressed in the precursors of the renal stroma, became deregulated at E16.5 and were reduced the neonatal mice (compare b, c, h, i with e, f, k, l, black arrows). Note that the Foxd1 gene continues to be expressed in cells located deeper in the developing kidney (compare f, l with c, i, red arrows). The image exposure time was equivalent between all the samples of the same developmental stage for a given probe. Bar: a–l, 100 μm