Fig. 2

Evaluation of kidney excretory function and morphology. The bar diagrams a-c depict the results from three analyzes: serum cystatin C, serum creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN). Bilateral renal ischemia (IRI – Ischemia Reperfusion Injury) induced significant excretory kidney dysfunction as indicated by elevated serum cystatin C. While cell therapy failed to improve kidney function in all ‘48 h’ groups, kidney function improved at week 6, particularly after the administration of transfected cells. Regarding the analyzes of creatinine and BUN, only one difference reached the level of statistical significance: ‘Control 48 h’ vs. ‘IRI 48 h’. Images d-g show representative areas of tissue sections from the cortex. The pathological findings were mild overall and therefore did not allow a systematic comparison of structural differences (magnifications in d-g × 40; Data as mean +/− SEM, *: p < 0.05)