Figure 6.

Trehalose induces autophagy and improves the renal structure post reperfusion following severe ischemia. Rats were injected with vehicle (Veh) or trehalose 48 h and 24 h prior to 60 min of renal ischemia (I60), and sacrificed 24 h (I60R24h) or 7 days (I60R7d) post reperfusion. Kidneys of I60R24h were analyzed by Western blotting for the annotated markers (A) and compared between Veh- and trehalose-treated for LC3-I, LC3-II, phosphorylated S6 (pS6), and cleaved caspase 3 (B). Kidney sections of I60R24h were also stained with TUNEL (C) and the plasma levels of AST (D) and creatinine (E) were determined. In the kidney sections of I60R7d, TUNEL staining was performed (F) and the average tubule diameter was assessed (G). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. N = 6.