Fig. 6

Immunostaining of phospho-Smad3 in the different groups (× 200). Muscle tissue served as a positive control for the immunohistochemistry reaction. Only a few positive cells were noted in the peritoneal membrane of the Control group (a). CKD animals exhibited increased cellular expression of phosphorylated Smad3 (b). Large numbers of phospho-Smad3-positive cells were detected in the thickened peritoneal membrane of animals with PF (c), and in animals with PF and uremia PF (d). TAM and rBMP7 significantly blocked Smad3 phosphorylation in the peritoneum (e and f), as demonstrated via quantitative analysis (g). In addition, TAM and rBMP7 significantly prevented Smad3 mRNA expression (h). Overall ANOVA p < 0.0001. Post-test p-values: *p < 0.01 vs Control; ^#p < 0.01 vs CKD, ^†p < 0.01 vs PF, ^§p < 0.01 vs PF/CKD