Fig. 2.

sFLT-1 reversed kidney damage in diabetic mice. Mice were injected with STZ to induce diabetes. In week 6, diabetic (D) and control (C) mice were transfected with a construct expressing sFlt-1 (S). At 5 and 15 weeks, albuminuria (a; albumin:creatinine ratio [ACR]), glomerular hypertrophy (b), glomerular podocytes (c), collagen type IV positivity (d) and fibronectin positivity (g) were measured. (e, f) Representative images of collagen type IV immunostaining in an untreated diabetic mouse at week 15 (e) and a diabetic mouse transfected with sFlt-1 (f). (h, i) Representative images of fibronectin immunostaining in an untreated diabetic mouse at week 15 (h) and a diabetic mouse transfected with sFlt-1 (i). ***p < 0.001, Student’s t test between groups at week 5. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA between groups at week 15. ^† p < 0.05 and ^††† p < 0.001 vs the corresponding diabetic mice at 5 weeks, one-way ANOVA after correcting for the time effect. Bars represent means ± SD. Number of animals: non-diabetic, non-transfected control mice at 5 and 15 weeks (n = 5 mice each); non-transfected diabetic mice at 5 and 15 weeks (n = 7 and n = 6, respectively); non-diabetic control mice transfected with sFlt-1 (n = 10); and diabetic mice transfected with sFlt-1 (n = 6). Scale bars, 50 μm