Histopathological Changes in the Kidney following Congestive Heart Failure by Volume Overload in Rats

Figure 3

Confocal microscopy of TUNEL staining ((a), (b), (c), and (d)) and proapoptotic Bax ((e), (f), (g), and (h)) in the kidney of control and ACF adult rats. (a), (b), (c), and (d) showed TUNEL-positive (green fluorescence) with DAPI-counterstained nucleus (blue fluorescence) immunofluorescence of the kidney in control or ACF adult rats. Note that apoptotic tubular cells were detected in the kidney following ACF-induced heart failure in rats (c) and (d); however, no staining was found in controls (a) and (b). (e), (f), (g), and (h) Confocal microscopy of proapoptotic Bax protein (red fluorescence) with DAPI-counterstained nucleus (blue fluorescence) immunofluorescence in the kidney in control or in ACF adult rats. Note that the absence or weak Bax immunostaining was detected in the renal tubular cell cytoplasm of control kidney (e) and (f). However, strong positive immunofluorescence staining within renal tubular cell cytoplasm after heart failure induction was detected (g) and (h). Bar = 20 μm.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)