Application of Scanning Electron Microscopy for observing glomerulus maturation in human kidney

Abstract

The ultrastructurg of the mammalian kidney has been explored by many authors, both in adult and fetal animals. As one of the most feasible means to elucidate the complicated three dimensional structure, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has played an important role in the study of the kidney especially on the morphology of renal glomeruli. So far none of the authors has applied SEM to the human fetus for investigating the development of the glomerulus. In the present report SEM has been used to demonstrate the structure of human fetal metanephric glomeruli with special reference to the morphological differentiation of the podocyte.Materials and Methods: The metanephric kidneys were collected from 4 human fetuses ranging from 11 to 14 weeks of gestation, 2-12 h after death following therapeutic or spontaneous abortions. All specimens were fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde in phosphate buffer and cut into small pieces with a razor blade.