Figure 4

Hormone-receptor expression is unaffected in the absence of Wip1. (A, B) Flow-cytometric analysis of mammary epithelial cells isolated from virgin wild-type (WT, blue) and Wip1-knockout mice (KO, green) and gated to remove dead cells/debris, doublets, and lymphocytes (see gating strategy in Additional file 2). Luminal cells were separated into hormone-sensing (HS, red) and alveolar (Alv, purple) subsets based on the expression of Sca1 and CD49b (B). (C) Subset identity was validated with qPCR for alveolar cells (E74-like factor 5 (Elf5) and β-casein) and hormone-sensing cells (estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER and PR). (D) Proportion of hormone-sensing cells (Sca1^hiCD49b^lo) in WT (blue bars) and Wip1 KO mammary glands (green bars). Values are presented as the mean proportions from five mice/group ± SD. (E) Relative Wip1 mRNA proportions in individual subsets of mammary epithelial cells. (F through H) Relative proportions of mRNA for estrogen receptor (ERα, F), progesterone receptor (PR, G), and prolactin receptor (PrlR, H) in WT (blue bars) and Wip1 KO (green bars) epithelial subsets. All qPCR data (E through H) are presented as the mean ± SD for three to four individual sets of WT and Wip1 KO animals.