Fig. 3

Intestinal Twist2 cell-secreted Wnts were critical for villus homeostasis and crypt structure maintenance. a Expression of Wnt molecules in Twist2 intestinal stromal cells. Intestinal Tomato⁺ stromal cells were sorted from Twist2-Cre; Tomato mice and collected for RNA isolation and qPCR analysis. The Value of Wnt1 was set at 1.0. N = 3. b Quantitative PCR results showed that stromal cells (Tomato⁺) of the small intestine of Twist2-Cre;Tomato;Wls^+/f mice showed a decrease in the mRNA levels of Wls compared to control mice. N = 4. c Representative immunofluorescent staining results for β-Catenin in the intestinal villi of control and Twist2-Cre;Wls^+/f mice. Bar: 50 μm. The intestine sections were stained with anti-β-Catenin antibodies and DAPI. β-Catenin immunofluorescent staining results without DAPI is shown in additional file: Fig. S6. d H/E, Ki67, goblet, Paneth cells, and GFP staining of intestinal villi of control and Twist2-Cre;Wls.^+/f mice. Bar: 50 μm. Bottom panels: quantitation data. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001. N = 4 (% of Ki67 + cells/crypt and # of Paneth cells/crypt). N = 6 (# of Goblet cells/villus). Others N = 5