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Keratin 17 null mice exhibit striking alopecia in an age- and strain-dependent fashion. Shown here is a hematoxylin-eosin stained, paraffin-embedded skin tissue section from a 7-day-old K17^/ mouse (background), illustrating several of the morphological anomalies displayed in K17^/ skin, including shorter hair follicle profiles, large melanin aggregates along follicular tissue, and cell death within the bulb region. These alterations are readily visible in only a subset of follicles. K17^/ mice also display hair fragility, as visualized by electron microscopy (inset). The K17^/ hair (inset, left) contains open cracks on the lateral side of the hair, as compared to K17^+/ hair (inset, right). (For details, see McGowan et al., p. 1412.)