Baseline characteristics of 14 weeks old male BL6 mice treated with GlcNAc or kept on ad libitum standard chow.

<p>A) and B) Baseline creatinine and urea values (control n = 5, GlcNAc i.p. n = 5, GlcNAc gavage n = 6) C) Plasma GlcNAc levels 2 hours after gavage of 250 μl of a 10% GlcNAc solution (n = 6) and in control animals with ad libitum access to water and standard chow (n = 5). D) Weight curves of control mice (n = 10) and mice kept on a 4 weeks ad libitum diet of chow enriched with 0.5% GlcNAc (n = 9).</p

TUNEL stainings of mouse kidneys.

<p>A) Control kidney without IR damage. B) and C) Mouse kidneys 24 hours after IR. B) Control mouse on standard ad libitum chow and drinking water. C) Mouse treated with twice oral gavage of 250 μl of 10% GlcNAc solution.</p

Histology before and after IR.

<p>A) Damage score after inspection of 5 HPF at the corticomedullary border (control baseline n = 5, control 24 hours n = 6, GlcNAc baseline n = 11, GlcNAc 24 hours n = 14). Sections were evaluated in a blinded manner by an experienced nephropathologist. B)–D) Representative PAS stainings from kidneys before and after IR. (X 200) B) Uninephrectomy section from undamaged kidney. C) and D) Kidney sections 24 hours after the end of ischemia. Asterix marks vanishing or missing nuclei. Black arrows mark tubular casts consisting of tubular cells. Yellow arrows show necrotic areas and denuded tubuli with regions just consisting of naked basement membrane. C) Kidney from animal treated with twice oral gavage of 10% GlcNAc solution before IR. (D) Kidney from control animal with twice oral gavage of PBS before IR.</p

Kidney failure 24 hours after ischemia-reperfusion injury in preconditioned and control animals.

<p>Creatinine and urea values after unilateral nephrectomy followed by 40 minutes of ischemia and 24 hours of reperfusion (IR) of the contralateral kidney. Different dosing regimens for GlcNAc were used. A) and D) Mice were kept on a four-week ad libitum diet enriched with 0.5% GlcNAc (n = 17) or received standard chow ad libitum (n = 15). B) and E) Mice received a 250 μl PBS twice, 24 and 2 hours before IR by gavage (n = 5). In the verum group PBS contained 10% GlcNAc (n = 10). C) and F) Verum mice were injected 20 mg GlcNAc in PBS either one hour before surgery i.p (n = 3) or immediately at the end of ischemia at the beginning of reperfusion (n = 4) directly into the abdominal cavity. Baselines represent control animals from <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0161315#pone.0161315.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1A and 1B</a> without ischemia-reperfusion injury A) and D) for untreated animals (n = 5), B) and E) for mice after gavage of 10% GlcNAc solution (n = 6) and C) and F) for mice after i.p. injection of 10 mg GlcNAc (n = 5). After four weeks of caloric restriction (n = 4) with standard chow mice are protected against ischemia-reperfusion damage compared to controls having ad libitum access to standard chow (n = 5) (G+H).</p