Fig. 1

Deletion of Cx43 in the proximal tubules preserves renal structure and protects against inflammation and fibrosis. Datasets published on Nephroseq were examined for Cx43 expression. Analysis of a published transcriptomic dataset shows that GJA1 expression increases in kidneys from patients with CKD (n = 48 with CKD and n = 5 normal controls: (a) and is positively correlated to proteinuria (b) and declining GFR (c)^[. Representative micrographs (d) and quantification of Masson’s Trichrome (tubular dilation) (e), Sirius Red (interstitial fibrosis) (f), F4/80 (macrophage abundance) (g) and FSP1⁺ (fibroblast number) (h) staining demonstrate that inflammation and fibrosis is significantly ameliorated in UUO-Cx43^−/− mice as compared to UUO mice. All groups are n = 5–12 unless otherwise specified, with ANOVA and Tukey post-test used for experimental comparisons except for transcriptomic data where an unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction was used. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001