Fig. 2.

Dendritic cells (DC) are important in the pathogenesis of the kidney IRI. (A) CD11c⁺GFP⁺ cells (arrows) in mouse kidney sections from CD11c-DTR/GFP mice (which express the human diphtheria toxin receptor [DTR] as a GFP fusion protein) were revealed immunohistochemically with GFP antibody (FITC fluorescence, green). Mutant diphtheria toxin (DT) had no effect on the number of GFP-positive CD11c cells in the CD11c-DTR/GFP sham and IRI mouse kidneys; however, there were significantly less GFP-labeled cells in DT-treated CD11c-DTR/GFP mouse kidneys after sham or IRI. (Scale bar = 50 μmol/L.) (B) The plasma creatinine level was measured in wild-type (WT) and CD11c-DTR/GFP mice that received mutant (control) or WT DT (4 μg/g) 48 hours before surgery. Values are mean ± SE; N = 2 to 11; *** P < 0.001. (C) H&E staining of kidneys from WT and CD11c-DTR/GFP mice reveals marked tubule injury in WT kidneys after IRI. Pretreatment with WT but not mutant DT before surgery protected CD11c-DTR mouse kidneys from injury (arrows, necrotic tubules; Scale bar = 100 μm). Data in A and C are representative of more than three experiments. From Li and Okusa (13).