Fig. 4. Stria vascularis in 10-week-old Cld11^-/- mice. (A) Toluidine-blue-stained Epon semi-thin sections of the cochlea of Cld11^-/- mice. (left) Stria vascularis (arrowheads) are located on the lateral wall of the cochlear duct and there are no obvious gross morphological malformations compared with the Cld11^+/+ cochlea (Fig. 1A). Asterisk, scala media; arrow, the organ of Corti. (See also Fig. 7A.) (right) The stria vascularis is enlarged. Yellow and pink arrowheads represent the marginal and basal cell layers, respectively. (B) Double immunofluorescence microscopy of frozen sections of Cld11^-/- stria vascularis with anti-claudin-11 pAb and anti-occludin mAb (a) or anti-ZO-1 mAb and anti-E-cadherin pAb (b). Claudin-11 completely disappears from TJs of basal cell layers (pink arrowhead) and signals of other TJ markers such as occludin and ZO-1 also appear to be decreased in basal cells. Occludin- and ZO-1-positive TJs are normally detected from marginal cell layers (yellow arrowhead). The E-cadherin staining pattern suggests that the cellular architecture is not extensively disorganized. Bars, 50 µm (A, left), 20 µm (A, right, B).