Gender Differences in the Progression of Experimental Chronic Kidney Disease Induced by Chronic Nitric Oxide Inhibition

Figure 3

Representative micrographs of renal cortical interstitial fibrosis (a), evaluated in Masson’s trichrome stained slides, and interstitial α-SMA accumulation (b), accessed by immunohistochemistry. Prominent interstitial expansion was observed in both male and female NAME animals, while significant accumulation of interstitial αSMA was seen only in male NAME rats. Accordingly, bar graph representation of percentage of cortical interstitial fibrosis (c) and interstitial α-SMA accumulation (d) showed that female animals submitted to the NAME CKD model were protected from interstitial myofibroblast infiltration when compared to male NAME rats ( versus Control ♂, versus Control ♀, versus NAME ♂). The number of animals studied per group was, respectively, Control ♂: ; Control ♀: ; NAME ♂: ; NAME ♀: .

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