Figure 6.

Albumin handling and proximal tubule remodeling in male and female diabetic kidneys. A: Serum level of albumin in male and female T2DN rats at >48 wk of age. B: urinary albumin excretion shows the development of albuminuria in male at >48 wk of age. *P < 0.05 between male and female groups. C: kidney cortical tissue expression of SGLT2 in male vs. female Wistar and T2DN rats at >48 wk of age. Western blotting representation for probing of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) and its relative abundance normalized on β-actin used as a loading control. *P < 0.05 statistical significance between groups. n ≥ 5 for all groups and analysis. D: immunostaining for megalin (Lrp2) expression reveals active proliferation of proximal tubule cells into Bowman’s capsule of diabetic male rats (middle; marked by arrow). Left, megalin staining indicates remodeling of proximal tubule morphology in diabetic male rats (arrows). T2DN, Type 2 Diabetic Nephropathy.