Figure 1.

Effects of prednisone on the survival rate and proteinuria level in MRL/lpr mice. (A) Treatment was initiated when the proteinuria level of the MRL/lpr mice reached 10 mg/100 mL urine. The model group mice were intragastrically treated with CMCNa (red line, n=10). The prednisone group mice were intragastrically treated with prednisone at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight (green line, n=8) or 5.0 mg/kg body weight (purple line, n=8). The survival rates during the 13 weeks of treatment are shown, and all mice used in the experiment were female. There was no significant difference between the groups (P=0.076). (B) The changes in the proteinuria level of each group were determined every week from one week before the initiation of prednisone therapy to 13 weeks after treatment initiation (model group, n=10; other groups, n=8; all mice were female). The proteinuria scores are shown. ^bP<0.05, ^cP<0.01 vs the model group.