Figure 7.

Podocyte-specific induction of Krüppel-like factor 15 (KLF15) attenuates podocyte injury in an adriamycin (ADR)-induced proteinuric murine model. Podocin-rtTA (PODTA) and PODTA;TRE-KLF15 mice were initially fed doxycycline (DOX) at 12 weeks of age for 1 week before treatment with ADR (18 mg/kg). Urine was collected weekly, mice were euthanized, and renal cortex was fixed for histology 4 weeks post-ADR treatment. (A) A schematic diagram of the experimental protocol is shown. (B) Albuminuria (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio) was measured (n=6). *P<0.05 (Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn post-test). (C) Electron microscopy was performed to assess ultrastructural changes in podocyte morphology. The representative images from four mice in each group are shown (×18,500). Red arrowheads show normal upright foot processes. Red arrows show foot process effacement. (D) Foot process width was quantified by counting the number of slits per length of glomerular basement membrane with ImageJ (n=3). *P<0.05 (Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn post-test); **P<0.01 (Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn post-test).