Sections of 4–5 µm thickness were processed for immunohistochemistry as described by [30 (link)]. Briefly, the sections were deparaffinized, rehydrated, and rinsed in tap water. Then the slides were embedded in 3% hydrogen peroxide for 10 minutes, immersed in antigen retrieval solution and later blocking of nonspecific protein binding was done by incubation in 10% normal goat serum in PBS for 1 hours at room temperature. The slides were incubated with the diluted primary antibody against α- smooth muscle actin (Rabbit Polyclonal antibody, Cat: RB-9010-P0; Lab-Vision, Fremont, CA, USA) at dilution of 1:200 for 2 hours to identify mesangial cell proliferation in paraffin sections.