Fig. 3
From: A potential link between fibroblast growth factor-23 and the progression of AKI to CKD
Fibrosis and nucleation of β-catenin/p-smad3 in HK2 cells after FGF-23 stimulation. (a) Expression of E-cadherin (E-cad), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), β-catenin, and phosphorylated Smad3 in control, FGF-23-treated and FGF-23/PD173074-treated HK-2 cells, as determined by Western blotting. (b) Quantification of the data in (a). (*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01). (c) Representative immunofluorescent staining of β-catenin and phosphorylated Smad3 in HK2 cells treated with FGF-23 in the presence or absence of PD173074 for 24 h. The cells were also stained with DAPI (middle panel) and merged with P-Smad3/β-catenin images (lower panel). The original blue nuclear DAPI staining was converted to blue so that the green nuclear β-catenin and phosphorylated Smad3 staining was shown in red or green on merged images for easy recognition