FIGURE 6.

(A) Representative western blots (each 50 g protein) of signaling molecules in kidney tissue of WT mice with or without UUO untreated or treated with serelaxin; (B) effect of serelaxin on protein expression of signaling molecules (P-ERK2/ERK2, P-ERK1/ERK1, PDE5a, P-PDE5a, TGF-β, CTGF, P-SMAD2) in fibrotic kidney from WT and cGKI-KO mice; in Figure 5 (B) effects of serelaxin on protein expression of markers (normalized to GAPDH) was determined only in fibrotic tissue. Each value of WT and cGKI-KO is related to untreated fibrotic WT, which was set as 1; α-SMA, α-smooth muscle actin; cGKI, cGMP-dependent protein kinase I; cGMP, cyclic guanosine monophosphate; CTGF, connective tissue growth factor; ECM, extracellular matrix; eNOS, endothelial nitric oxide synthase; ERK, extracellular-signal regulated kinase; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; GMP, guanosine monophosphate; KO, knock out; MMPs, matrix metalloproteinases; PDE5a, phosphodiesterase 5a; RLX, serelaxin; RXFP1, relaxin receptor; Smad, small mothers against decapentaplegic protein; TGF-β, transforming growth factor-β; UUO, unilateral ureteral obstruction; WT, wildtype, ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01.