Analysis of glomerular injury upon lithium treatment.
12-week old female BTBR-WT and -ob/ob mice received standard chow or chow with lithium supplementation (10 or 40 LiCl mmol/kg) for 12 weeks. After sacrifice, kidneys were isolated and the absence (A) or presence of moderate (B) or severe (C) mesangial matrix expansion was determined using PAS staining. Moderate and severe mesangial matrix expansion was defined as an increased presence of mesangial matrix (indicated by stars) with the moderate form still having some open capillary lumens (indicated by arrows) while these are basically absent in the severe form. Scale bar indicates 10 μM. The percentage of glomeruli with moderate or severe mesangial matrix expansion was scored as follows: 0) 0–1%, 1) 1–5%, 2) 5–20%, 3) 20–50%, 4) >50% (D and E), n = 9 per group. Kidney lysates were used to determine nephrin abundance via immunoblotting (F) and subsequent semi-quantification (G), n = 9 per group. *p<0.05; ***p<0.001. Cm, Coomassie.