Lymphatic marker genes are down-regulated in LECs during CHS-induced inflammation. Analysis of the normalized array intensity levels of various (A) pan-endothelial and (B) LEC specific marker genes. In the case of genes that were represented in the arrays by multiple probe sets, the average signal intensity of all present probes is displayed. (C) A significant, inflammation-induced down-regulation of LYVE-1, Prox-1, and VEGFR3 was confirmed by quantitative PCR analysis. *P < .05. ***P < .001. (D) Immunofluorescence was performed on cryosections, obtained from uninflamed (control) or CHS-inflamed ears 48 hours after challenge, and confirmed an inflammation-induced down-regulation (↓) of VEGFR3 (red) in LYVE-1-expressing lymphatics (green) at the protein level. Representative images from 2 different experiments are shown. Scale bar represents 50 μm.