ULTRASTRUCTURAL-STUDY OF GLOMERULAR SLIT DIAPHRAGM IN NEW-ZEALAND BLACK-WHITE MICE

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 35  (3) , 213-220
Abstract
The kidneys of proteinuric and nonproteinuric female NZB/W [New Zealand Black/White] mice and normal Swiss albino mice were perfusion-fixed with tannic acid-glutaraldehyde and studied by light microscopy and EM. Semiquantitative studies were performed on full montages of glomeruli enlarged 10,000 times. Fine structural alterations of the epithelial slits, with emphasis on the slit diaphragm, were studied on semiserial thin sections. Proteinuric NZB/W mice with features of membranous nephropathy exhibited: wedging of electron-dense deposits below the slit diaphragm, enlargement and distortion of interpedicel spaces, displacement, folding and stacking of slit diaphragms, formation of occluding junctional complexes in residual slits and variable loss of food processes. Similar alterations were not observed in controls or nonproteinuric NZB/W mice including animals having complexes in glomerular mesangia but not in epithelial slits. In NZB/W mice, abnormal protein excretion is associated with structural modification of the slit pore and suggest a role for such a component in the process of protein exclusion from the glomerular ultrafiltrate.

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