Figure 3.

Canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling promotes MMP-7 expression in vivo. (A) Ectopic expression of Wnt1 in the kidney. Mice were injected intravenously with Wnt1 expression vector (pHA-Wnt1) or empty vector (pcDNA3) as indicated. Renal expression of Wnt1 mRNA was assessed by RT-PCR. Numbers (1, 2, and 3) denote each individual animal in a given group. (B) Ectopic expression of Wnt1 in vivo induces renal β-catenin accumulation in obstructive nephropathy. Representative micrographs demonstrate renal β-catenin expression and localization in the sham group (left), group with unilateral ureter obstruction (UUO) injected with pcDNA3 (center), and group with unilateral ureter obstruction injected with pHA-Wnt1 plasmid (right). Bar = 50 μm. (C and D) Representative RT-PCR results (C) and quantitative determination (D) show renal MMP-7 mRNA expression in different groups as indicated. Numbers (1, 2, and 3) in C denote each individual animal in a given group. GAPDH, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Data in D are presented as mean ± SEM of five animals (n=5). **P<0.01 versus sham controls; ^††P<0.01 versus pcDNA3. (E) Western blot analyses show renal MMP-7 protein abundance in the obstructed kidney in different groups as indicated.