SPONTANEOUS ARTERITIS AND GLOMERULITIS IN MICE - COMPARISON OF LIGHT AND ELECTRON-MICROSCOPIC RENAL CHANGES IN PN-N, NZB-BL, 101-MAC, AND CBA-MAC MICE

  • 1 January 1975
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 33  (1) , 8-15
Abstract
Four PN/n mice between 12-17 mo. of age had fibrinoid necrosis of the renal arteries, but 32 mice up to the age of 17 mo. showed no consistent change in the media or intima of the renal arteries although perivascular cuffing with round cells was prominent from 9 mo. of age. Glomerulitis, indicated by increase in the mesangium on light microscopy, affected most mice over 7 mo. old, and dense deposits on EM were present in most mice from 7 mo. old. These changes occurred significantly more frequently than in CBA/MAC mice; the 101/MAC showed an intermediate frequency, and the pattern in a small sample of NZB/BL mice resembled that of the PN/n mice. Basement membrane thickening increased with age from 3 wk in all of the strains but more often included dense deposits in PN/n mice. Splitting of the glomerular basement membrane in very young mice in all strains was not considered relevant and probably was developmental. Failure consistently to detect glomerulitis earlier by EM than by light microscopy was attributed to the greater sampling error of the former. Unidentified dense bodies in glomerular epithelial cells occurred at all ages in all strains; the suggestion that they were virus particles relevant to the disease was not sustained. Intraobserver variation studies showed satisfactory repeatability for light microscopy and for dense deposits and basement membrane thickening, but the dense bodies were not detected with acceptable reproducibility, partly due to technical variation.

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