Table 1 lists some of these interventions. Susceptibility

to AN is strain-specific, with BALB/c mice being highly sensitive,23 while C57BL/6 mice are highly resistant to renal injury.11 Breeding experiments have identified a single gene locus with recessive inheritance on chromosome 16 that confers susceptibility to AN. Susceptibility alleles at this locus are associated with blunted expression of protein arginine methyltransferase on chromosome 8, a protein implicated in cellular sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents.56 find more Additionally, genetic background influences severity of AN. In these same studies a locus on chromosome 8 has been identified that influences the severity and progression of nephropathy. Lymphocyte number is a determinant of sensitivity to Adriamycin-induced renal injury. Compared with wild-type BALB/c mice, SCID BALB/c require only half the dose

of Adriamycin to induce disease10 However, Adriamycin does not cause renal injury in lymphocyte-depleted recombinase activating gene-1 knockout C57BL/6 mice (V. Lee, unpubl. obs., 2010) meaning that lymphocyte number alone does not explain the resistance of C57BL/6 mice to Adriamycin-induced renal injury. Susceptibility selleck kinase inhibitor to Adriamycin is likely to lie in the immunological differences between species, for example, as occurs with BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. It is convenient to use the Th1/Th2 paradigm to summarize the differences. C57BL/6 mice have immune responses that are, in general, polarized towards the Th1 axis whereas diglyceride BALB/c mice possess immune responses that deviate towards the Th2 type. Therefore, the immune system of C57BL/6 mice is better equipped against and hence less susceptible to intracellular infection (e.g.

Listeria57) but is more susceptible to antibody-mediated autoimmune disease such as myasthenia gravis. The immune response of C57BL/6 mice, as compared with BALB/c mice, is characterized by greater amounts of Th1 cytokines such as IL-12 and IFN-γ and less Th2 cytokines such as IL-4. The Th1 response is also characterized by upregulation of dendritic cells to a more mature phenotype. Consistent with this hypothesis, a recent study has shown that CD4+CD25− T cells isolated from C57BL/6 mice are less susceptible to suppression by CD4+CD25+ Tregs than their BALB/c counterparts, and that C57BL/6 mice possess fewer CD4+CD25+ Tregs than BALB/c mice.58 Therefore, a possible explanation for the relative resistance of C57BL/6 mice to Adriamycin-induced renal injury may be that Th1-immune responses are protective against AN, whereas Th2 responses are not. Zheng and colleagues59 have recently reviewed susceptibilities of mice to AN (Table 2) supporting the variability in response to Adriamycin across strains. Adriamycin induces injury by direct toxic damage to the glomerulus with subsequent tubulointerstitial injury.