Renal fibrogenesis in mouse is PTAFR-dependent.

A) Ethanol ingestion by mice induces mRNA encoding fibrotic proteins in kidney. mRNA was isolated from mice ingesting for 25 days a ramped ethanol diet or their controls was extracted and quantified relative to 18S RNA by real-time PCR as in Fig 1. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 4); *, p<0.05. B) Electron micrographs of kidney from control and ethanol-fed mice. Kidneys were recovered and imaged as in Fig 1, including 2 micron line inserts. Extracellular fibrils are present between epithelial cells in the ethanol-fed mice in the expanded micrograph on the right. C) Ethanol-induced accumulation of renal mRNA encoding fibrotic proteins requires PTAFR. mRNA was isolated and quantitated by qPCR as in panel A from control and ethanol-fed parental BL6 or ptafr-/- mice. The data is presented as mean ± SEM (n = 4); *, p<0.05.