Figure 3. Role of Ca_v2.2 on diabetic nephropathy.

(a) Time course of urinary albumin excretion per milligram creatinine of experimental mice. Urinary albumin excretion of both db/db Ca_v2.2^−/− mice and db/db Ca_v2.2^+/− mice was lower than that of db/db Ca_v2.2^+/+ mice. (b) Serum creatinine levels at 16 weeks of age. (c) Creatinine clearance at 16 weeks of age. In db/db Ca_v2.2^+/+ mice, creatinine clearance was suppressed to the same level of db/+ mice. (d) Immunohistochemical study of Ca_v2.2 in db/+ Ca_v2.2^+/+ mice and db/db Ca_v2.2^+/+ mice. Ca_v2.2 was positive at glomerular cells (arrows). (e) Double immunostaining for Ca_v2.2 (brown) and WT1 (blue) shows double positive cells in a glomerulus (insets). db/+ Ca_v2.2^+/− mice (white triangles), db/+ Ca_v2.2^−/− mice (white squares), db/db Ca_v2.2^+/+ mice (black circles), db/db Ca_v2.2^+/− mice (black triangles), and db/db Ca_v2.2^−/− mice (black squares). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, vs. db/db Ca_v2.2^+/+ mice. Scale bar = 50 μm.