(A) Experimental plan. NTS, nephrotoxic serum. (B) Representative flow cytometry plot for renal CD45⁺ leukocytes from cGN mice in metabolic cages or not. Bar plots showing alterations of immune cells, infiltrating macrophages, neutrophils, CD4⁺ T cells, and Th1 and Th17 cells from healthy mice, cGN mice in metabolic cages (n = 9), or cGN mice not in metabolic cages (n = 7). (C–E) Representative confocal micrographs of kidney cryosections from healthy mice (C), cGN mice (D), and cGN mice in metabolic cages (E). Scale bar: 50 μm (left), 20 μm (right). (F) Corticosterone serum concentrations of unstressed (n = 4) and stressed (n = 5). (G) Experimental plan for determining the effect of the glucocorticoid receptor inhibitor RU486 on the progression of cGN. (H) Bar plots showing the renal infiltration of CD45⁺ leukocytes (n = 6), infiltrating macrophages (n = 6), and CD4⁺ T cells (n = 3). (I) Bar plots showing renal infiltration by immune cells (n = 4, 4, 6, 3 for groups from left to right). (J) Bar plots showing serum corticosterone levels. n = 4, 7, 6, 8 for groups from left to right. B, H, and J show data merged from 2 experiments; F and I, show representative data from 2 experiments. Data are presented as mean ± SD. Statistical analysis was done with 2 tailed Student’s t test or 1-way ANOVA. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001.