Figure 1

Generation of podocyte-specific Crb2 knockout mice. (a) Two loxP sites were inserted into introns 6 and 8 of the Crb2 gene to skip exons 7 and 8 in the Crb2 floxed allele. (b) While there was a 353-bp band with Crb2 primers in Crb2^fl/fl mice and Crb2^fl/flpod-Cre^Tg/+ mice, there was a 153-bp product in Crb2^+/+pod-Cre^Tg/+ mice. There was a 102-bp band with pod-Cre primers in Crb2^+/+pod-Cre^Tg/+ mice and Crb2^fl/flpod-Cre^Tg/+ mice. (c) There were a strong band between 140–180 kDa and a weak band between 180–245 kDa markers with CRB2 antibody in the glomeruli from Crb2^+/+pod-Cre^Tg/+ mice or Crb2^fl/fl mice, while these bands were invisible in those of Crb2^fl/flpod-Cre^Tg/+ mice at 2 months of age. The band of β-actin was similar among the three groups. (d) Synpo, a podocyte marker, was co-localized with Crb2 in Crb2^+/+pod-Cre^Tg/+ or Crb2^fl/fl mice. No co-localization of Crb2 and Synpo was observed in Crb2^fl/flpod-Cre^Tg/+ mice. Scale bars 20 μm.