Figure 6

Analyses of renal PDE-5 protein expression and glomerular immunoreactivity. (a) As compared to non-diabetic controls, DM kidneys showed 6-fold increased PDE-5 expression. Cinaciguat treatment only tended to lower PDE-5 expression in DM-Cin kidneys. (b) Double immunostaining with the podocyte marker synaptopodin (green) revealed minimal basal PDE-5 expression (red) in controls but strong glomerular co-localization in DM and DM-Cin kidneys (yellow color). Bar represents 50 μm (400x magnification). Representative PDE-5 immunoblot is shown. Protein expressions were normalized to tubulin and expressed as fold change relative to a calibrator control sample. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n = 8–10/group). **p < 0.01 (two-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparison test).