Vascular Biology, Atherosclerosis and Endothelium Biology Dysmorphogenesis of Kidney Cortical Peritubular Capillaries in Angiopoietin-2-Deficient Mice

vation. In mouse kidney maturation, Ang-2 is ex-pressed in arteries, with lower levels in tubules, whereas Tie-2 is expressed by endothelia. We hypoth-esized that Ang-2 deficiency disrupts kidney vessel patterning. The normal renal cortical peritubular space contains fenestrated capillaries, which have few pericytes; they receive water and solutes which proximal tubules reclaim from the glomerular fil-trate. In wild-type neonates, smooth muscle actin (SMA), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), and desmin-expressing cells were not prominent in this compartment. In Ang-2 null mu-tants, SMA, desmin, and PDGFR prominently im-munolocalized in cortical peritubular locations. Some SMA-positive cells were closely associated wit