Fig. 2

The effects of Rarα deletion on growth and survival. (A) The strategy of Rarα gene knock out (KO) by disrupting its exon 4 using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. (B, C) The detection of Rarα knockout efficiency in adult mouse vaginas by immunofluorescence (B) and western blotting (C) The nuclei were counterstained by DAPI (blue). Scale bar, 100 μm. GAPDH was used as a loading control. (n = 3 independent experiments.). Bars indicate the mean ± SEM. ***P < 0.001 vs. the WT group. (D) Body weight of Rarα^−/− female mice (n = 6) and their WT littermates (n = 32) from 2 to 24 weeks. Bars indicate the mean ± SEM. ***P < 0.001 vs. the WT group. (E) Frequencies of Rarα genotypes in offspring from 30 Rarα^+/− mating pairs were determined. Columns represent the percentage of the genotypes Rarα^+/+ (black), Rarα^+/− (green), and Rarα^−/−(red), and two dashed red lines indicate expected frequencies based on Mendelian inheritance. The pup number for each genotype is shown in the columns. (F) Survival curve of Rarα^+/+ (black), Rarα^+/− (green), and Rarα^−/− (red) from the newborn to adulthood