Fig. 2

Loss of ACE2 resulted in downregulation of renal nephrin levels in the ApoE/ACE2 DKO mice. The real-time PCR and Western blot analyses for nephrin mRNA (a), nephrin protein (b) and representative nephrin immunofluorescence images (c, d) showing downregulation of nephrin levels in the ApoE/ACE2 DKO kidneys compared with the ApoEKO kidneys. n = 5–6; β-actin or GAPDH was used as an endogenous control. In the immunofluorescence images, the red color represents nephrin and blue color represents DAPI stained nuclei. RE relative expression, AU arbitrary units, WTC wild-type control, ApoE Apolipoprotein E, KO knockout, DKO the ApoE/ACE2 double knockout mice. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 compared with WT control group; ^# P < 0.05 compared with ApoEKO group.