Figure 5.

Quantitative analysis of KIBRA overexpression and YAP-KIBRA overexpression on podocyte morphology and cellular physiology. Shown are scatter plots of individual cell morphometrics of differentiated podocytes (Control), podocytes overexpressing KIBRA (KIBRA), and podocytes co-overexpressing KIBRA and YAP (KIBRA/YAP). A, KIBRA OE cells display a significantly smaller spreading area and a smaller number of projections as quantified by area/perimeter ratio. Co-expression of YAP with KIBRA rescues the cell size and cell area/perimeter ratio observed in control cells. B, KIBRA OE cells show lower levels of contractile stress fibers as measured by F-actin intensity per cell, which increases upon YAP co-overexpression. C, changes in nuclear morphology mirror the changes in cell size and actin cytoskeleton induced by KIBRA overexpression. KIBRA OE cells show significantly smaller nuclear size with a significantly elongated morphology compared with control cells. YAP and KIBRA co-overexpression returns nuclear size and aspect ratio to similar levels as control cells. KIBRA OE also exhibited lower nuclear localization of YAP (D) and significantly fewer and smaller focal islands (E). ****, p < 0.0001; ***, p < 0.001; **, p < 0.01; n.s., not significant; two-tailed Mann–Whitney test. Error bars, S.E.