Fig. 2

Knockout of Lrp5 alleviates the renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis in CKD. a, c Western blot analyses and (b, d) densitometry quantification of (a, b) CTGF, fibronectin, collagen I, and collagen III in the kidneys from WT and Lrp5^−/− mice at day 10 post-surgery (n = 5–7), and (c, d) E-cadherin and α-SMA in the kidneys from WT and Lrp5^−/− mice at day 5 post-surgery (n = 5–6). e Staining of collagen III (brown color; scale bar = 200 μm) and picro-sirius red (red color; scale bar = 200 μm) in the kidneys from WT and Lrp5^−/− mice with sham surgery or UUO at day 10 post-surgery, and staining of α-SMA (green color; scale bar = 75 μm) and E-cadherin (green color; scale bar = 100 μm) in the kidneys from WT and Lrp5^−/− mice with sham surgery or UUO at day 5 post-surgery. The lower panels are enlarged images of the boxed areas in the upper panels. White arrows indicate polarized distribution of E-cadherin in the basolateral membrane of tubules; red arrows indicate re-distribution of E-cadherin to the apical membrane of tubules. n = 5–6. Each lane represents an individual mouse. All values are expressed as mean ± SEM. **p < 0.01, by two-way ANOVA with pair-wise multiple comparisons