Fig. 4

Argon-Celsior preserved tissue integrity. Light microscopy images of kidney tissue samples (×40). The contralateral kidney (see “Methods” section) was considered to represent the authentic renal architecture with normal tubules (CL; a). The kidney taken from the Air-Celsior animals (Air; b) exhibited tubule damage with tubular atrophy, interstitial fibrosis and lymphocyte infiltration (x). The kidney taken from the Xenon-Celsior animals (Xe; c) exhibited major lesions, including strong tubular atrophy and fibrosis. In contrast, the kidney taken from the Argon-Celsior animals (Ar; d) exhibited less tubule damage, weak tubular atrophy and satisfactory trophic signals. Immunostaining of caspase-3 expression associated with kidney samples taken at autopsy is shown (Air-Celsior group: Air; e; Xenon-Celsior group: Xe; f; ×40; Argon-Celsior group: Ar; g): labelling was weaker in Argon-Celsior transplants vs. Air-Celsior and no labelling was found in Xenon-Celsior transplants