Fig. 5

Alteration of fibrosis markers in the kidneys of WT and Il20rb KO mice following UUO. The blue areas of the Masson’s trichrome and the red areas of the SiriusRed-stained kidney sections represent the collagen deposits of WT and Il20rb KO mice following the onset of UUO (Fig. 3a, b). The protein amount of fibronectin and α-SMA in the kidney tissue of WT and Il20rb KO mice after UUO was measured by Western blot analysis in comparison with GAPDH as internal control (c, d and Additional file 1: Figure S4b, c). The renal mRNA expression of Tgfb1 (e) Pdgfb (f) and Ctgf (g) in the kidney tissues of WT and Il20rb KO mice was determined by real-time PCR in comparison with Gapdh as internal control. Values were expressed as mean ± SD. n = 6–7 in each group; *p < 0.05 vs. control (Kruskal–Wallis test); ^#p < 0.05 vs. WT UUO day 7 (Mann–Whitney U-test); ^$p < 0.05 vs. WT UUO day 14 (Mann–Whitney U-test). Scale bar: 50 µm (a, b)