FIGURE 4.

Metabolic acidosis (MA) concurrent with UPEC‐UTI markedly increases CD inflammation. C3H‐HeN or HeOuJ were fed normal rodent chow (normal) or rodent chow supplemented with 2% NH₄Cl (MA), from day −2, or −1 to +3 with respect to bladder instillation of with 1 × 10⁷ cfu/50 μl UPEC strain CFT073 on day 0. Kidneys were harvested 3 dpi and kidney CDs were isolated by DBA‐lectin‐mediated magnetic sorting of collagenase‐digested kidney. Relative cytokine/chemokine abundance in RNA isolated from DBA⁺ CDs was determined by qRT‐PCR and ΔΔCt was calculated utilizing GAPDH as a reference gene. Each bar represents ratio of MA to normal control (mean ± SD, 2 mice/condition); *p < .01, **p < .05 versus normal; Mann–Whitney U‐Test