Figure 2.

Podocyte-specific deletion of VHL results in a range of proteinuria. A: Urine was collected from 4-week-old litters resulting from Pod-Cre × fVHL crosses, separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and stained with Coomassie blue alongside bovine serum albumin standards (lane 1 = 5 μg; lane 2 = 0.5 μg). Urine from wild-type mice (lane 4) does not contain albumin, whereas urine from Pod-Cre fVHL animals show varying levels of albumin (lanes 3, 5, and 6–8). Some Pod-Cre fVHL urine (lane 9) looks similar to wild-type animals and contains no detectable albumin. The arrow marks the ∼68 kDa albumin band. B: Urinary albumin was quantified by using Albuwell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in 64 Pod-Cre × fVHL progeny (n = 21 wild-type; n = 43 Pod-Cre fVHL). Nonparametric t-tests were significant for both female and male data (*P = 0.03). C: Blood was isolated from 33- to 41-week-old Pod-Cre × fVHL mice, and blood urea nitrogen levels were quantified and plotted against urinary albumin. Elevated blood urea nitrogen was associated with only the highest levels of albuminuria (>1000 μg/ml).