Fig. 3.

T helper (Th)17 cell culture supernatant significantly increases podocyte motility relative to Th0 cell culture supernatant. A: podocytes treated with Th17 cell culture supernatant were significantly more motile than those treated with Th0 cell culture supernatant (n = 8, P = 0.0007 by an unpaired t-test). The area of the clear zone is measured in pixels. The area at 12 h was normalized to 0 h. Units are arbitrary. B: to establish the importance of the signaling events detected by Western blot, podocytes were treated with Th17 supernatant and inhibitors against p38 MAPK and JNK. Motility was measured in these podocytes using a wound healing assay. JNK inhibition significantly reduced the Th17-mediated increase in podocyte motility. Statistical significance was measured using one-way ANOVA and a post hoc Bonferroni’s multiple-comparison test. The area of the clear zone is measured in pixels. The area at 12 h was normalized to 0 h. Units are arbitrary. C: a typical set of images that were taken to measure podocyte motility. The area of the clear zone 12 h postscratch is expressed as a decimal of the area at 0 h. Scale bars = 500 μm.