FIGURE 1.

Antifibrotic effect of microcystin (MC) in renal fibrosis mice. Mice were treated with MC-LR (20 μg/kg/day) or MC-RR (20 μg/kg/day) by intragastrical administration for 4 weeks in advance, and then unilateral ureteral ligation was performed to construct a mouse model of obstructive renal fibrosis. The operated mice were administrated with MC-LR or MC-RR for another week, and then were euthanized for further analysis. (A) Schematic diagram of the experimental design. Forty mice were divided into four groups, Sham, unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO), UUO + MC-LR, and UUO + MC-RR groups, each with 10 mice. No mice died during the experiment. (B,C) Kidney tissue sections were employed for H&E and Masson staining (scale bar: 40 μm). (D) Fibrosis positive area in Masson staining were assessed by pathologist blind to this study (n = 6). (E,F) The protein level of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), fibronectin and collagen I were measured in the obstructive renal tissues of UUO mice by western blot. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 determined by one-way ANOVA with S–N–K post hoc analysis. (G) Residual contents of MC were detected in the kidney tissues of model mice treatment with MC-LR or MC-RR using the ELISA method. Data were analyzed using independent Student’s t-test, *p < 0.05.