Fig 6. Effect of L-arginine supplementation on relative kidney expression of profibrotic factors; connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), transforming growth factor β (TGFβ), periostin and Smad3 mRNA (2^{-Δ ΔCT}) at days 5, 10 and 20 in CTL, AA and AA+L-Arg mice.

Real-time quantitative PCR for CTGF (A), TGFβ (B), Periostin (C) and Smad3 (D) mRNA expression was performed with kidney tissue from CTL, AA and AA+L-Arg mice normalized against 18S. Statistical analysis was performed using two-way ANOVA followed by Holm-Sidak test. Data are presented as means ± SEM; n = 8 in each group. *P ≤ 0,05 vs CTL mice, ***P ≤ 0,001 vs CTL mice, ^#P ≤ 0,05 vs AA mice, ^##P ≤ 0,01 vs AA mice and ^###P ≤ 0,001 vs AA mice.