Fig 3. Protective effect of stem cell therapy on acute kidney ischemia reperfusion injury.

PAS staining of representative kidney sections from different experimental groups. (A) The epithelial injury was characterized by tubular necrosis (shown by arrows), intratubular hyaline casts (shown by asterisk *), denudation of basal membrane and vacuolization of tubular epithelial cells with a loss of their brush border. (B) The renal tissue showed less severe injury, with less hyaline casts and tubular necrosis in the group treated with stem cells (arrow indicates presence of brush borders). (C) Histology of a kidney without injury (D). Quantitative analysis of the presence of tubular hyaline casts, (E) tubular necrosis (F-G) and serum creatinine levels (mg/dl) at 24h and at 48h of the three cohorts (vehicle treated (black), hAFSC treated (striped) and no injury (white)). * p<0.05, ** p<0.01 *** p<0.001. (scale bar = 50 μm)