Figure 5

Effect of sex steroids on the abundance of MC cells in Xenopus mucociliary epithelium. A) Increase of MC and total cells by E2, T and EE2 in the skin outer layer of whole embryos st 40, SEM analysis, d.f. = 14. B) E2, T and EE2 increased the apparent density of MC progenitors prior to MCE differentiation (st 15), as revealed by tuba1a-b(+) chromogenic ISH. Images are representative of 24 embryos/condition. C-D) Increase of MC cells by E2, T and EE2 in whole embryos skin and ectodermal explants (caps), as measured by tuba1a-b (+) ISH staining of MC cells prior (st 15) and after (st 30) MCE differentiation, d.f. = 21. A,C,D) Mean ± SD, “a” = control group; statistical significance is represented in a letter code: a indicates no difference with control, all other letters indicate significant difference with the control, shared letters indicate no significant differences between the corresponding data sets. One-way ANOVA, Tukey comparison test, p < 0.05.