VillinCre-Blimpflox mice postpartum day 7. Mus musculus

In many mammalian species, the intestinal epithelium is immature at birth. During the suckling to weaning transition, the intestine matures. This developmental transition is the result of a genetic program that is intrinsic to the gut and independent of luminal content, but its regulators have not been identified. We investigated the function of the transcriptional repressor Blimp-1 using mice with intestine-specific ablation of Blimp-1. Deletion of Blimp-1 results in growth retardation and excess neonatal mortality. Mutant mice lack all typical epithelial features of the suckling period and are born with features of adult-like intestine. Overall design: To assess the function of the gene Prdm1 (Blimp) on postnatal day 7 intestinal epithelium, VillinCre-Blimpflox and control (VillinCre-Blimpwt or Cre-Blimpflox) mice were generated. Mice were sacrificed at day 7 postnatal, and pieces of whole mid-intestine were taken for analysis.