Figure 1  Dorsoventral Skin Characteristics
(A) Skin slices from animals of different age and genotype demonstrate similar patterns of hair-length variation along the dorsoventral axis (scale bar = 1 cm).
(B) Enlarged area from (A), demonstrating the transition in hair length and color in at/at mice (scale bar = 0.375 cm).
(C) Proportional hair length for (A) plotted as a function of relative position along the dorsoventral axis.
(D) Hair length plotted as a function of absolute position along the dorsoventral axis for 8-wk-old BA strain mice.
(E) Proportion of zigzag hairs (± SEM) differs slightly between dorsum and ventrum of inbred mice (p < 0.0001, χ2 test, n = 1,958, 1,477, 1,579, 1,502).
(F) Differences in dorsal and ventral skin development at P4.5 (scale bar = 1 mm, upper; 200 μm, lower).
(G) Differences in hair melanin content and DOPA staining for dorsum (d), flank (f), and ventrum (v) in ae/ae and at/at mice. The upper panel also demonstrates a cream-colored appearance of the at/at ventrum. The middle panel shows representative awls (scale bar = 100 μm). The lower panel shows DOPA-stained dermis (scale bar = 200 μm). Dorsal and ventral skin develop at different rates.