Urinary albumin was measured using mouse albumin ELISA (Bethyl Laboratories) and SDS-PAGE/Coomassie blue staining, as described elsewhere (16 (link)). Plasma and 24-h urine creatinine were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (16 (link)). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed using standard techniques (16 (link)). Glomerular area was measured using ImageJ software (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/) in 34 ± 2.1 glomeruli/kidney from 4 mice per experimental condition. A renal pathologist (G.M.) examined in a blinded fashion kidney specimens stained with periodic acid Schiff and assigned a semiquantitative pathology score based on the percentage of the area (0 = none; 1 = 1–25%; 2 = 26–50%; 3 = 51–75%; 4 = 76–100%) with the following features: glomerular nodules, mesangiolysis, mesangial sclerosis, and interstitial fibrosis (24 (link)). The percentage of glomeruli per section containing mesangiolysis or nodules was calculated (28 (link)).