Fig 3

Loss of RhoA, mDia or YAP induced podocyte apoptosis. a-c Con and Con-siRNA were short for blank control and control siRNA respectively. RhoA and its downstream effector mDia and YAP protein expression was knockdown to 20 %, 31.7 % and 7.3 % respectively in siRNA treated podocytes. d-i Podocytes were stained with Annexin V/PI for flow cytometry analysis. Cell apoptosis rate was significantly increased in RhoA, mDia or YAP knockdown podocytes. j Bax mRNA expression was obviously increased in RhoA, mDia or YAP knockdown podocytes. k-l Bax protein expression was remarkably increased in RhoA, mDia or YAP knockdown podocytes. Results were expressed as fold Bax of RhoA-siRNA, mDia-RNA or YAP-siRNA group in relation to con-siRNA group normalized to GAPDH. There is no significant difference between control group and con-siRNA group. Data were from at least three independent experiments. * P < 0.05 vs con-siRNA group