Figure 6.

Genetic disruption of Gal-3 significantly increased the chronic fibrosis with similar chronic inflammation. (A,B) Picrosirius red was used for collagen staining of kidney sections for all groups of mice at 45 dpi and digital quantification of fibrosis revealed significantly increased collagen deposition in the LIC + Lgals3^−/− group of mice at 45 dpi. (C–E) α-smooth muscle actin protein immunostaining in all groups of mice and representative western blot image of α-smooth muscle actin protein in kidney samples from LIC and LIC + Lgals3^−/− groups of mice at 45 dpi; β-actin was used as a housekeeping control. Data represent assays of two independent experiments of groups of 6 animals, each. For digital quantification, the samples derive from the same experiment and the gels/blots were processed in parallel. AU, arbitrary units; ^**P < 0.01; ^****P < 0.0001.