Figure 1.

Mrc2 protein is expressed by interstitial cells in the UUO model of CKD. (A and B) Immunofluorescence confocal microscopy illustrates diffuse Mrc2 protein expression by interstitial cells in wild-type kidneys damaged by 14 days of UUO. Mrc2 was not detected in Mrc2 knockout mice exposed to UUO 14 days (C) or wild-type mice that underwent sham surgery (D). The photomicrographs are magnified ×400 (A) and ×630 (B–D). Staining for the basement membrane protein laminin (red) in B–D highlights that all of the Mrc2⁺ cells are in the interstitium. Kidney protein levels quantified by Western blotting (E), corrected for protein loading using β-actin, showed significant protein induction in response to UUO (F). The bars in the graph represent results as mean ± SD. *P<0.05 compared with sham levels.