Figure 1

Tubule-specific ablation of β-catenin does not affect the severity of renal fibrosis after obstructive injury.

(a) Expression of β-catenin in the obstructed kidneys in Ksp-β-cat-/- mice and their control littermates. Kidney sections were immuno-stained with specific antibody against β-catenin and semi-quantitative analysis is presented (b). (c, d) Western blot analyses demonstrate renal β-catenin levels in Ksp-β-cat-/- and control mice, quantitative data are presented. **P < 0.01 versus controls. (e) Loss of tubular β-catenin resulted in little difference in collagen deposition and renal fibrotic lesions after UUO. Representative micrographs (e) of Masson's Trichrome staining and quantitative determination (f) are presented. Loss of tubular β-catenin did not affect fibronectin and collagen III expression in the obstructed kidneys at 7 days after UUO. Representative micrographs (e) of immunofluorescence staining for fibronectin and collagen III and quantitative determination (g) are presented. Scale bar, 50 μm.