Figure 9.

Treatment of Alport mice with propagermanium knocks down elevated MMP-12 expression and restores normal GBM architecture in Alport glomeruli. I: Mice were administered propagermanium or vehicle alone, as in Materials and Methods, and glomeruli were isolated and analyzed for expression of the indicated MMPs using real-time PCR. Data from three independent sets of glomeruli pooled from three animals were analyzed in triplicate. Asterisks denote statistically significant differences in specific MMP expression when comparing wild-type and Alport mice (P > 0.005). Note that only MMP-12 expression was affected by administration of propagermanium. II: Representative capillary loops from Alport mice treated with vehicle alone (A and C) or with propagermanium (B and D) were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. Restoration of uniform GBM thickness in the treated mice is observed along with reconstitution of normal podocyte foot processes and restoration of the slit diaphragms (D, arrow). Scale bars = 1 μm (A and B); 50 nm (C and D).