Fig 1.
Podocyte density and foot process effacement in renal biopsies of diabetic nephopathy.
(A) Significant reduction in podocyte density assessed by WT1 expression in DN cases compared to the control group. Mann‒Whitney test. (B) Representative biopsy of the control group showing high in situ WT1 expression in the glomerular compartment. (C) Representative biopsy of the DN group showing low WT1 expression in the glomerular compartment. (D) Foot process width in the control and DN groups. Mann‒Whitney test. (E) Foot process width in the control group and in different DN classes. Kruskal‒Wallis test followed by Dunn’s posttest. *p<0.05. (F) Normal pedicels under TEM in the control group. (G) Foot process effacement under TEM in the DN group.
Fig 2.
Mindin in situ expression in the glomerular compartment.
(A) Comparison of Mindin in situ expression in DN cases, kidney biopsies from patients diagnosed with nondiabetic glomerular diseases and the control group. Kruskal‒Wallis test followed by Dunn’s posttest. p<0.05. (B) Low in situ Mindin expression in a representative biopsy of the control group. (C) Representative biopsy of the DN group showing high in situ Mindin expression. Representative biopsy of (D) FSGS, (E) MCD and (F) IgAN cases showing moderate in situ Mindin expression.
Fig 3.
Mindin in situ expression and podocyte injury.
(A) Trend of positive correlation between Mindin expression and foot process width in the DN group. Spearman’s correlation (rS). (B) Significant positive correlation between Mindin and foot process width in the class III DN group. Spearman’s correlation (rS). (C) The Mindin ROC curve in the DN group revealed high specificity and moderate sensitivity, showing Mindin protein as a biomarker of podocyte injury in DN.
Fig 4.
Mindin in situ expression and duration of DN.
(A) Comparison of Mindin in situ expression in the DN < 10 years and DN > 10 years groups. Mann‒Whitney test. The Mindin ROC curve in the (B) DN group < 10 years and (C) DN > 10 years group revealed high specificity and moderate sensitivity.