Flow cytometry was performed following the method reported by Xu et al. [21 (link)]. A single-cell suspension of the renal cells was prepared and incubated with a primary antibody or the appropriate isotype control antibody at 4 °C for 30 min. The following antibodies were used: FITC-conjugated anti-mouse CD45 (Biolegend), APC-conjugated anti-mouse Collagen I (Biolegend), FITC-conjugated anti-mouse CD4 (eBioscience), and PE-cy7-conjugated anti-mouse IL-17A (BioGems) antibodies. All flow cytometric analyses were performed using an LSR II Flow Cytometer (Beckman–Coulter) and the Flowjo software.