Figure 5.

RFP⁺CoRL Proliferation Is Significantly Reduced in Diseased RenWt1^fl/fl Mice Compared with Diseased RenWt1^+/+ Mice

Confocal microscopy for BrdU (blue), WT1 (green), RFP (red), and DAPI (gray) in experimental FSGS in RenWt1^+/+ and RenWt1^fl/fl mice. Insets show the JGC for each channel, labeled as superscripts. Scale bars, 20 μm.

(A–C) RenWt1^+/+mice. (A) At baseline, a BrdU⁺ cell (A1) is detected in the adjacent tubule. BrdU is not detected in the JGC. WT1 (A2) is not detected in RFP⁺ cells (A3). (B) At FSGS D28, BrdU (B1) co-localizes with WT1 (B2) and RFP (B3), creating a white/purple color (B5, solid arrows). A few BrdU⁺ cells do not express WT1 (B1-B5, dashed arrow) (C) At D28 after enalapril, BrdU⁺ (C1), WT1⁺ (C2), RFP⁺ (C3) cells increase (C5, solid arrows). A few BrdU⁺ cells do not express WT1 (C1–C5, dashed arrow).

(D–F) RenWt1^fl/fl mice. (D) At baseline, neither BrdU (D1) nor WT1 (D2) is detected in RFP⁺ (D3) cells in the JGC. (E) At D28, a BrdU⁺ cell (E1, solid arrow) is detected in the adjacent tubule and does not overlap with WT1 (E2) or RFP (E3), hence no merge (E5). (F) At D28 after enalapril, a BrdU⁺ cell (F1, solid arrow) does not overlap with WT1 (F2) or RFP (F3), hence no merge (F5).

(G) Stacked bar graph shows the number of RFP⁺BrdU⁺WT1⁻ (blue) and RFP⁺BrdU⁺WT1⁺ (green) cells in the JGC. RFP⁺BrdU⁺WT1⁺ cells increase progressively in diseased RenWt1^+/+ mice but not in RenWt1^fl/fl mice (n = 13/group).