FIGURE 1.

mRNA expression level analysis of CFH, CFHR-B and CFHR-C in various organs in mice with and without DDD. Aged fH^−/− mice, but not fH^+/+, were susceptible to DDD. Total RNA was extracted from brain, liver, lung, heart, spleen, kidney, knee joint and skin from fH^−/− and fH^+/+ with and without DDD. All RNA samples were analyzed in duplicate by qRT-PCR. The mRNA for CFHR-B and CFHR-C were not only universally present, but were present at very high levels in the liver of mice with and without DDD vs. brain, lung, heart, spleen, kidney, knee joint and skin. A. CFH mRNA in various organs of fH^+/+ mice with no DDD. B. CFH mRNA in various organs of fH^−/− mice with DDD and no CFH was present as expected. b. A small histogram embedded in the main histogram shows detectable mRNA levels of CFHR-B in brain, lung, heart, spleen, kidney, knee joint and skin. C. CFHR-B mRNA in various organs of fH^+/+ mice with no DDD. The mRNA was detectable in all organs. c. A small histogram embedded in the main histogram shows detectable mRNA levels of CFHR-B only in SPL and SK. D. The CFH mRNA in various organs of fH^−/− mice with DDD was absent, as expected. E. CFHR-B mRNA in various organs of fH^−/− mice with DDD. e. A small histogram embedded in the main histogram shows that it was also detectable in LG, HT, SPL, KID, KJ and SK. F. CFHR-C mRNA in various organs of fH^−/− mice with DDD. f. A small histogram embedded in the main histogram shows detectable mRNA levels of CFHR-C in LG, HT, SPL, KJ and SK. All data presented in these graphs, as Mean ± SEM, were from fH^+/+ mice with no DDD (n = 5) and fH^−/− mice with DDD (n =5) and these experiments were repeated three times. BR = brain, LG = lung, HT = heart, SPL = spleen, KID = kidney, KJ = knee joint and SK = skin. *p-value < 0.05 compared to liver