The levels of proteinuria in the α-GalCer group were significantly lower than those in the vehicle group (Fig. 1a). Moreover, the incidence of proteinuria in the α-GalCer group was also significantly lower when analyzed using the log-rank test (Fig. 1b, p < 0.05), but was not statistically significant when using the Cox proportional hazard model (Supplementary Table S1, p = 0.10). Neither group displayed hematuria. The survival rate in the α-GalCer group tended to be higher than that in the vehicle group, although it was not statistically different (Fig. 1c, p = 0.20 and Supplementary Table S1, p = 0.33).Figure 1The effects of repeated alpha-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) administration on proteinuria and survival rates. (a) The levels of proteinuria in each group, measured 8 weeks after the last α-GalCer or vehicle injection (n = 5–7 in each group). *p < 0.05 compared with the vehicle group. (b) The percentages of mice with free of proteinuria and (c) the survival rate in the α-GalCer and the vehicle groups (n = 8 and 10, respectively). Arrows show the timing of when the mice were injected with α-GalCer or vehicle.