Clearance of SCs inhibits BRG1-induced renal fibrosis in mice
(A) Experimental design. Red arrows indicate the injection of control (pReceiver-M14) or BRG1 overexpression plasmid (pReceiver-M14-BRG1). Blue lines indicate the administration of vehicle or ABT-263. (B) Representative western blot demonstrated the renal expression of BRG1, p16INK4a, p21, fibronectin, collagen I, and α-SMA proteins in different groups as indicated. (C–H) Quantitative data on the relative abundance of renal BRG1 (C), p16INK4a (D), p21 (E), fibronectin (F), collagen I (G), and α-SMA (H) proteins in four groups as indicated. ***P<0.001 versus control group; #P<0.05, ##P<0.01, ###P<0.001 versus pReceiver-M14-BRG1 injection alone (n=6). (I) Representative staining micrographs showed renal SA-β-gal activity and TGF-β1 expression in four groups as indicated. Frozen kidney sections were stained for SA-β-gal activity and paraffin-embedded kidney sections were immunostained with antibodies against TGF-β1. Scale bar, 50 μm.