Fig. 2

Vitexin reduced UUO-induced renal tubular epithelial cell death and inflammation. (A) Representative images of TUNEL staining in kidney tissues (magnification 400×; scale bar: 20 μm; green: TUNEL; blue: DAPI); the number of TUNEL-positive cells in each group was counted. (B) The protein levels of cleaved caspase3 in the kidneys of UUO mice with or without vitexin treatment were examined by WB; densitometry was performed by ImageJ, and the results are shown in the right panel. (C) The protein levels of KIM-1 and NGAL in the kidneys of UUO mice with or without vitexin treatment were examined by WB; densitometry was performed by ImageJ, and the results are shown in the right panel. (D) Representative IHC staining of F4/80 in the kidneys of UUO mice treated with or without vitexin (magnification 400×; scale bar: 20 μm) and the quantified results. (E) The mRNA levels of renal IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and MCP-1 were analyzed by qRT‒PCR. The results are shown as the mean ± S.D. of 6 mice in each group. ****P < 0·0001, ***P < 0·001, ns: no significance (one-way ANOVA for A - D, two-way ANOVA for E)