Fig. 1.

A: photomicrographs at ×4 and ×10 magnification show nephron components from kidneys of salt-sensitive (SS) rats following digestion and manual isolation prior to RNA extraction. mTAL, medullary thick ascending limb; PT, proximal tubule; OMCD, outer medullary collecting duct. B: summary of marker gene expression of the nephron components from RNA-seq analysis. Slc12a1 gene [encodes NKCC2 (Na⁺-K⁺-Cl⁻ cotransporter)] was used as a marker of mTAL (16, 26, 47). Nphs2 (podocin), which is almost exclusively expressed in podocytes of fetal and mature kidney glomeruli, was used as a marker of glomeruli (6). Aqp1 (aquaporin-1 water channel protein) was used as a marker of PT (46). Aqp2 (aquaporin-2 collecting duct water channel protein) was used as a marker for the OMCD (10). Cspg4 [a chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4, also known as neuron-glial antigen 2 (NG2)] was used as a pericyte marker (vasa recta) (37). All values are expressed as fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads.