Figure 2.

Recovery of parenchymal damage in endotoxemic animals. (A) H&E staining showed significant desquamation of proximal tubular epithelial cells (zoomed image, black arrow), marked fibrin deposition and loss of capillaries in numerous glomeruli, Bowman’s capsule expansion (zoomed image, black arrow with rounded tip), and interstitial inflammatory infiltrate (T24 LPS and zoomed image, small black arrows) after 24 h from LPS infusion compared to control (T24 Healthy). PS-CVVH treatment reduced inflammatory infiltrate (small black arrows) but not preserved glomerular (loss of capillaries and Bowman’s capsule expansion; zoomed image, black arrow with rounded tip) and tubular compartment from LPS injury (zoomed image, black arrow). In PS-CVVH group, few tubules did not show signs of damage and vacuolization (zoomed image, dotted arrows). Renal biopsies of endotoxemic animals after PMMA-CVVH treatment showed recovery of tubular damage (zoomed image, dotted arrow) and reduced pathological changes at glomerular level (zoomed image, black arrow with rounded tip) and inflammatory infiltrate (zoomed image, black arrows). (B, C) Tubular and glomerular pathological score was obtained as described in the Methods section and expressed as median ± IQR of at least five pigs for each group (Healthy and PMMA T24 group, n = 7, LPS T24 n = 5, PS T24 n = 6). Statistically significant differences were assessed by the Mann–Whitney test (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.005; ***p < 0.0005).