Table 3. Renal gene and circulating expression of RAS components and AGE-receptors.

Gene expression levels of AT-1a, AGE-R1, AGE-R3, renin and angiotensinogen were quantitated by real-time RT-PCR on renal tissues collected at the completion of the study. The protein expression of AT-1 receptor was measured in membranous fraction of renal cortex by western immunoblotting and corrected for total protein. Angiotensin II was quantitated by ELISA within plasma and renal cytosolic fractions in all groups at week 24 of the study.

Group	AT-1a gene	AT-1protein	AGE-R1	AGE-R3	Renin	Angiotensinogen	Ang II Plasma (pg/mL)	Ang II Cytosol (pg/mL)
WT	1.47 ± 1.04	1.00 ± 0.00	0.97 ± 0.18	1.26 ± 0.91	1.02 ± 0.23	1.04 ± 0.12	791.7 ± 71.9	0.04 ± 0.06
WT D	1.22 ± 0.67	0.83 ± 0.30	1.14 ± 0.17	1.47 ± 0.72	2.24 ± 2.23	1.34 ± 0.42*	833.6 ± 128.0	0.02 ± 0.04
RAGE KO	3.12 ± 1.65*	0.41± 0.12*	0.53 ± 0.09*	0.72 ± 0.20	0.93 ± 0.26	1.24 ± 0.28	809.9 ± 125.3	0.07 ± 0.06
RAGE KO D	2.17 ± 1.59	0.77 ± 0.16‡	0.67 ± 0.05†‡	1.13 ± 0.38‡	1.25 ± 0.44‡	2.07 ± 0.95‡	753.9 ± 56.3	0.09 ± 0.06†
AT-2 KO	5.07 ± 1.93*‡	0.25 ± 0.11*	0.70 ± 0.08 *‡	0.95 ± 0.41	0.71 ± 0.23*	0.70 ± 0.12*‡	251.6 ± 94.2*‡	0.61 ± 0.26*‡
AT-2 KO D	4.13 ± 1.38†	0.40 ± 0.32	0.68 ± 0.15†	2.16 ± 0.75§||	0.50 ± 0.24†	1.69 ± 0.29||	70.8 ± 48.6†§||	0.61 ± 0.35†§

Data presented as mean ± SD. WT – Wild Type, WT D – Wild Type Diabetic, RAGE KO – RAGE Knockout, AT-2 KO – Angiotensin II receptor type 2 Knockout, Ang II Plasma – circulating levels of angiotensin II, Ang II Cytosol – Angiotensin II levels within the renal cytosol.

^*p<0.05 vs WT,

^†p<0.05 vs WT D,

^‡p<0.05 vs RAGE KO,

^§p<0.05 vs RAGE KO D,

^||p<0.05 vs AT-2 KO.