The structural organization of the kidney of the desert rodent Psammomys obesus

Abstract

The architecture of the desert rodent Psammomys obesus has been studied by means of standard histologic procedures and by single nephron injections. As other rodent kidneys (rat, mouse), the Psammomys kidney consists of two types of nephrons, 66% short looped and 34% long looped nephrons. The cortex is composed of 4 to 5 layers of glomeruli, which lie closely put together, the glomeruli often touch each other. The superficial and the midcortical glomeruli give rise to short looped neophrons, the juxtamedullary to long looped nephrons. In the strongly developed medulla the inner stripe shows the most striking pattern. It consists of two distinct compartments, that of the giant vascular bundles and that of the interbundle regions. The giant vascular bundles consist of about 8 to 14% arterial vasa recta and 39 to 47% venous vasa recta; furthermore they include the thin descending limbs of the short loops of Henle which amount to 44 to 51% of the bundle structures. The tubules of the interbundle regions surround the bundles in a regular pattern. The inner zone is almost completely surrounded by the renal pelvis; the long broad papilla protrudes into the ureter. The thin descending limbs of short looped nephrons traverse the inner stripe inside the giant vascular bundles. Leaving the bundles they turn back within the inner stripe; their ascending limbs lie in the interbundle region. Both limbs of the long loops of Henle run in the interbundle region, together with the ascending limbs of the short loops and the collecting ducts. The long loops penetrate deeply the inner zone. Many bends are found near the tip of the papilla. The renal pelvis has a very specialized form. It penetrates the inner stripe with many complexely shaped extensions, which surround the giant vascular bundles. Large parts of the bundles with their thin walled structures are thus separated from the pelvic urine only by a single layer of cuboidal epithelium. The possible functional importance of the described specializations of the Psammomys kidney (giant vascular bundles, large inner zone, special shape of the renal pelvis) for the urine concentrating and urea recyclng mechanisms is discussed.