Journal: iScience
Article Title: Injured tubular epithelia-derived CCN1 promotes the mobilization of fibroblasts toward injury sites after kidney injury
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112176
Figure Lengend Snippet: The PT-specific knockout of CCN1 inhibits the accumulation of fibroblasts at injured tubules and subsequent tissue fibrosis in IRI in vivo (A) Experimental scheme. Tubular-specific CCN1 knockout mice (CCN1Flox/Flox SLC34a1GCE x R26tdTomato: CCN-KO) received IRI (35 min) and tamoxifen (3 mg/kg at each time point) as indicated. (B) Histological analysis of the kidney at 1 day after IRI by immunostaining of KIM1. (C) RT-PCR of the Ccn1 and Havcr1 genes in sorted tdTomato+ tubular epithelial cells. (D) Representative co-immunofluorescence images of KIM1 and pFAK, and PDGFRβ and pFAK at 1 day after IRI. (E) Representative images of Sirius red staining. (F) Semi-quantitative fibrosis scores at 14 days after IRI. n = 9 WT IRI (−), n = 8 WT IRI (+), n = 9 CCN1-KO IRI (−), n = 8 CCN1-KO IRI (+). (G) qPCR of RNA from whole kidneys as representative markers of tubular injury ( Havcr1 ), tubular integrity ( Lrp2 ), chemokine ( Ccl2 ), macrophage ( Cd68 ), fibroblasts ( Pdgfrb ), myofibroblasts ( Acta2 ), extracellular matrix ( Col1a1 and Fn1 ), and profibrotic factor ( Tgfb1 ). n = 9 WT IRI (−), n = 8 WT IRI (+), n = 8 CCN1-KO IRI (−), n = 7 CCN1-KO IRI (+). The scale bars indicate 100 μm in (B), 50 μm in low-power field pictures, and 20 μm in high-power field pictures in (D). The scale bars indicate 50 μm in (E). For all groups, data are means ± SEM. Statistical analyses were performed by paired t test for comparisons of IRI kidney and contralateral kidney (CLK) and by ANOVA and Dunnett’s post hoc test for comparisons of multiple variables. ∗ p < 0.05.
Article Snippet: Rat kidney epithelial cells (NRK52E cells) , The JCRB Cell Bank , N/A.
Techniques: Knock-Out, In Vivo, Immunostaining, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, Immunofluorescence, Staining