AICAR treatment does not affect renal damage and cortical AMPK activity. (A) Kidney morphology. Trichrome staining revealed that AICAR treatment did not preclude renal damage in SS hypertension. Scale bar = 2 mm. (B) Abundance of total AMPKα, phosphorylated Thr172-AMPKα and phosphorylated acetyl-CoA carboxylase (pACC), a canonical target of AMPK were studied in the renal cortex collected from the infused animals. No difference in AMPK activity was found between the groups.