Table 1.
The baseline characteristics of the study population.
Fig 1.
The ultrastructural morphology of autophagy in glomerular podocytes, as observed by electron microscopy.
Electron micrographs of a glomerulus in patients with MCNS (A-C, 73-year-old female; D, 19-year-old female) are shown (A-D). A condensed ribosome with limiting membranes (type I autophagy) (A and D) and autophagic vacuoles containing lipid droplets and vacuoles (type II autophagy) (B and C) are indicated by arrows. CL, capillary lumen; Ep, glomerular epithelial cell (podocyte); GBM, glomerular basement membrane; US, urinary space.
Fig 2.
Dual immunolabelling of LC3 and WT1 in the glomerulus of an MCNS patient, as detected by immunofluorescence microscopy (73-year-old, female).
Fluorescence micrographs of sections single stained for LC3 with FITC (A), WT1 with rhodamine (B), and dual stained for LC3 and WT1 (D) are shown. The cell nuclei were stained with DAPI (C). Note the LC3-positive area is co-localized with the WT1-positive area in panel D.
Fig 3.
The relationships between the number of autophagic vacuoles in podocytes and proteinuria, serum albumin, and the foot process effacement score in patients with MCNS (A, C, E) and IMN (B, D, F). The correlation between the number of the autophagic vacuoles in podocytes and daily urinary protein (g/day) (A, B), serum albumin (g/dL) (C, D) and the podocyte FPE score (E, F). MCNS, minimal change nephrotic syndrome; IMN, idiopathic membranous nephropathy.
Table 2.
Evaluation of autophagy and foot process effacement in glomerular podocytes by electron microscopy.
Table 3.
A multiple regression analysis to determine autophagic vacuoles per glomerulus in MCNS.