Figure 4. Epithelial hyperproliferation in Dstn^corn1 corneas. A: Immunofluorescence for Ki67 (green) labels proliferating cells in the corneal epithelium of Dstn mutants and WT mice on A.BY and B6 backgrounds at P58. All slides were counterstained with DAPI to mark cell nuclei (blue), which is shown merged with Ki67 staining in the lower panels. Bar, 20 μm. B: Quantification of Ki67 positive cells shows significantly increased numbers of proliferating cells in Dstn^corn1 cornea compared to Dstn^corn1–2J and WT cornea in both A.BY and B6 backgrounds at P58 (p<0.001 for both backgrounds). C: A tendency for increased hyperproliferation in A.BY Dstn^corn1 compared to B6.Cg-Dstn^corn1 is observed by P28. This difference becomes statistically significant by P58. Sample sizes: A.BY.Cg-Dstn^corn1–2J P58 n=4, A.BY Dstn^corn1 P58 n=5, A.BY WT P58 n=4, B6 Dstn^corn1–2J P58 n=3, B6.Cg-Dstn^corn1 P58 n=5, B6 WT P58 n=4, A.BY Dstn^corn1 P28 n=6, B6.Cg-Dstn^corn1 P28 n=3. Unit length=300 μm. Error bars, SEM * denotes statistical significance resulting from t-tests, with omitted bars representing non-significance. *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.