Fig. 3.

Induction of disease in groups of Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats (n = 6) immunized with alpha 3 chain of type IV collagen [α3(IV)NC1] or the five 15-mer overlapping peptides, showing: (a) deposits of IgG on the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) at week 6 after immunization; (b) urinary albumin excretion at different time-points after immunization: α3(IV)NC1 (filled circles), Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) (open circles), pCol(17–31) (filled squares), pCol(24–38) (open squares), pCol(31–45) (filled triangles), pCol(38–52) (open triangles), pCol(45–59) (filled diamonds) [note that albumin excretion was observed only in groups of animals immunized with α3(IV)NC1 or pCol(24–38); all other groups of animals remained at background levels throughout the experiment]; and (c) severity of glomerular abnormalities at week 6 after immunization. *P < 0·01; **P < 0·001, pCol(24–38) immunized versus FCA alone.