Female and male mice aged 1 to 12 months were used in this study. Mice were hosted under specific pathogen‐free conditions in single ventilated cages in a 12 h/12 h day/night cycle and fed ad libitum with a standard rodent diet (V1534‐000, Ssniff) with free access to water.
For the generation of hepatic endothelial conditional Acvrl1‐knockout mice, Stab2‐icreF3 mice (C57BL/6N‐Tg[Stab2‐icre]1.3Cger/Sgoe, Mouse Genome Informatics [MGI]: 6741034)25 (link) were crossed with Acvrl1‐floxed mice (B6N.129‐Acvrl1tm2.1Spo, MGI: 4398901).26 (link) Mice with the genotype Stab2‐icreF3tg/wt × Acvrl1fl/fl indicating homozygous recombination were denoted as Alk1HEC‐KO (alias Acvrl1HEC‐KO). Littermates with the genotypes Stab2‐icreF3wt/wt × Alk1fl/fl or Stab2‐icreF3wt/wt × Alk1fl/wt were used as controls. Alk1 knockout was confirmed by RNA‐sequencing (RNA‐seq) of isolated hepatic EC and by immunofluorescence of ALK1 target Endoglin.
For the generation of hepatic endothelial conditional Acvrl1‐knockout mice, Stab2‐icreF3 mice (C57BL/6N‐Tg[Stab2‐icre]1.3Cger/Sgoe, Mouse Genome Informatics [MGI]: 6741034)25 (link) were crossed with Acvrl1‐floxed mice (B6N.129‐Acvrl1tm2.1Spo, MGI: 4398901).26 (link) Mice with the genotype Stab2‐icreF3tg/wt × Acvrl1fl/fl indicating homozygous recombination were denoted as Alk1HEC‐KO (alias Acvrl1HEC‐KO). Littermates with the genotypes Stab2‐icreF3wt/wt × Alk1fl/fl or Stab2‐icreF3wt/wt × Alk1fl/wt were used as controls. Alk1 knockout was confirmed by RNA‐sequencing (RNA‐seq) of isolated hepatic EC and by immunofluorescence of ALK1 target Endoglin.
