Results of whole mount preparations. The whole mount preparations of uterus (A-B), duodenum (C-D), heart (E-F), airways (G-H), and urinary bladder (I-L) isolated from naive κB-lacZ mice were labeled with β-gal for 6 hours. The label indicates NF-κB activity primarily in a vascular network of blind-ended, thin-walled capillaries that merged to larger collecting ducts. High-magnification pictures of κB-lacZ bladders indicate that the labeling was interrupted at intervals by constrictions, which gave them a knotted or beaded appearance (K-L). Panel K shows complete absence of β-gal staining in a superficial blood vessel surrounded by lymphatics (red arrow). C57BL/6 bladders (M-N) present typical subserous sigmoid blood vessel (yellow arrow) of similar shape of the main vessel observed in Tie2-lacZ (P), but very different from a typical β-gal staining observed in κB-lacZ bladders (I). On the mucosal site, a dense capillary network was observed in bladders isolated from C57BL/6 (N), which was very similar to the β-gal labeling observed in Tie2-lacZ (O). Interestingly, the bladder mucosa of κB-lacZ mice was devoid β-gal labeling (J). However, when bladder mucosa was lifted away from the detrusor muscle, and the tissue was transilluminated, it was possible to visualize the specific label of adventitial lymphatic vessels (J). Representative photomicrograph of double label with X-gal and LYVE-1 IHC: bladder isolated from C57BL/6 (Q) and κB-LacZ (R-T) mice. Bladders were photographed as whole mounts (Q-S) or cross-section (T). Images were visualized using a Nikon SMZ 1500 microscope equipped with high-resolution Plan 1.6 WD24 objective lenses (Nikon, Tokyo, Japan). The image medium was phosphate-buffered saline at room temperature. Magnifications for individual panels are as follows:A, C, H, N, and O, 10×; B and L, 100×; D, K, and S, 60×;E,G,I,M,andP,7.5×;F,30×; J and Q, 20×;R,40×; and T, 400×.