Fig. 4

Statin expands the scxa-expressing cell population by promoting tenogenic specification of CNC. (A-B?) Expression of mcherry and sox9a in (A,A?) DMSO and (B,B?) atorvastatin-treated Tg(scxa:mcherry) embryos at 48 hpf. White boxes mark the craniofacial domain in maximum intensity projection (MIP) (A,B), magnified in corresponding optical sections (A?,B?). Yellow arrows mark mcherry+/sox9a+ cells. Atorvastatin expanded mcherry+/sox9a+ cells (B?, compare with A?). (C-T?) Time-course of live imaging of tendon and cartilage development in (C-E,I-N?) DMSO- and (F-H,O-T?) atorvastatin-treated Tg(sox10:eGFP;scxa:mcherry) embryos (n=4 shown). Arrows mark sox10:eGFP+ cells of Meckel's cartilage (green), scxa:mcherry+ tendon progenitors (red) and scxa:mcherry+/sox10:eGFP+ cells (yellow). Atorvastatin expanded scxa:mcherry+/sox10:eGFP+ cells near the region where Meckel's cartilage forms (compare F-H and O-T? with C-E and I-N?, respectively). White boxes mark the craniofacial domain in the MIPs (I-T) of high-resolution images, magnified in the corresponding MIPs (I?-T?) and optical sections: eGFP (I?-T?) and mcherry (I?-T?) expression. Ventral views, anterior towards the left.