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. 2013 Jul 5;24(10):1599–1616. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2013010030

Figure 8.

Figure 8.

Phenotypic reversions of damaged REPs are accelerated by anti-inflammatory therapy. (A) A Venn diagram summarizing the differential expression of transcripts in the kidneys with Clip-ClipR treatment. The sum of 1191 differentially regulated transcripts is identified by the microarray analyses using kidneys of sham, Clip, and ClipR-14 groups (n=3 per group, per array). (B) Top signaling pathway responsible for the myofibroblastic transformation of REPs. IPA reveals that the atherosclerosis signaling is the most significant canonical signaling pathway and a heat-map representation of genes involved in this pathway is shown. Genes marked with red asterisks are examined in D. (C) Schematic presentation of cell isolation method from UUO-treated kidneys. Infiltrating and resident leukocytes are collected from single-cell suspensions of kidneys by using anti-CD45 antibody at UUO day 2. Fractionated cells were subjected for real-time PCR analyses. (D) Infiltrated leukocytes and residual renal cells collaboratively create inflammatory microenvironments. Real-time PCR analyses are performed to quantify mRNA expression levels for Pdgfb (encoding PDGFβ), Tgfb1, Il6, Tnfa, Mmp3 (encoding matrix metalloproteinase 3), Mmp9, and Itgam (also known as CD11b, a surface marker for monocyte/macrophage). Relative mRNA levels in CD45+ fraction, CD45– fraction, and whole UUO kidneys are expressed as fold changes compared with those of contralateral kidneys (set as 1). *P<0.05 and **P<0.01 versus UUO-treated kidneys (n=5 per group). (E) Schematic presentation of dexamethasone treatment. Dex is injected daily after the clip removal for 4 days, and mice are then euthanized for the subsequent analyses. (F) Effects of dexamethasone on the recovery of G-REPs. Real-time PCR analyses are performed for quantifying mRNA levels of Epo-GFP, Col1a1, and Col3a1 using vehicle-treated and dexamethasone-treated ISAM kidneys. Epo-GFP level is expressed as the relative expression compared with the contralateral kidney. #P<0.05 and ##P<0.01 (n≥3 per group). Cont, contralateral; Dex, dexamethasone.