Macroscopic phenotype of podoplanin^−/− mice in postnatal and embryonic development. (A-B) Podoplanin^−/− mice in postnatal development are significantly smaller (right mouse) than podoplanin^+/+ littermates (left mouse) or heterozygotes. Podoplanin^−/− mice also show ectatic vessels and some bleeding in their skin. Approximately 20% of podoplanin^−/− mice reach fertility age. (C) No significant differences between podoplanin^−/− and podoplanin^+/+ mice are detected in their activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), but a lower hematocrit is found in P5 podoplanin^−/− mice. Values in panels B and C are means ± SD. (D-G) Blood-filled capillary network (black arrows) that increases in size with age, and blood extravasations (white arrows) are found in podoplanin^−/−, but not in podoplanin^+/+ embryos (H); Olympus SZ zoom stereo microscope, Sony DSC W200 camera with adapter VAE-WD. Immunofluorescence staining (I) identifies the dermal blood-filled vessels of podoplanin^−/− embryos as Lyve-1⁺ lymphatics (green) that contain Ter119⁺ erythrocytes (red). Cell nuclei are stained with DAPI (blue); Olympus AX70, 20 ×/0.7 UPlanApo air objective. Scale bar in panel I equals 50 μm.