H&E staining was performed to observe the histopathological changes in the kidney according to the published protocol (33 (link)). The kidney sections were mounted on glass slides, dehydrated with ethanol after staining with H&E and mounted with Canada balsam (Kanto Chemical). Periodic acid Schiff (PAS) staining was performed according to the kit (cat. no. PAS-1-IFU; ScyTek Laboratories, Inc.) manufacturer's protocol. A Leica DM 2500 microscope (Leica Microsystems) was used to image the sections at fixed magnifications of x400 (H&E) and x1,000 (PAS), and in each group, 10 specific areas were captured. Analysis of glomerular lesions was performed according to a previously published procedure (25 (link)). The scoring was as follows: Normal, 0; <25% damage, 1; 26-50% damage, 2; 51-75% damage, 3; and 76-100% damage, 4(25 (link)). Histopathological analysis of lesions was performed according to a published procedure (34 (link)). In short, histopathological changes were evaluated by quantitative measurement of interstitial tubular injury and through counting the number of apoptotic and necrotic cells, tubular brush border loss, dilatation of tubules, cast formation and infiltration of neutrophils. The injury scoring was as follows: 0, None; 1, 0-10; 2, 11-25; 3, 26-45; 4, 46-75; and 5, 76-100% (34 (link)).