Pathological structure of the kidney from adult mice with mosaic mutation.

The mosaic (Atp7a(mo-ms)) is an X-linked, lethal mutation in mice. In mosaic mutant males, many clinical features characteristic of defective copper metabolism have been observed and they die at the age of 15 days, exhibiting strong similarities to the brindled and macular mutants. About 4% of the mutant males live to sexual maturity and some of them are fertile. In this paper, alterations in the structure of the kidney from adult mutants are described. Owing to an inherited defect of efflux, copper is accumulated in the kidney of the mutants up to a toxic level and this leads to severe damage of the renal cortex. Pathological changes in the kidney mostly affected the structure of the renal corpuscle and renal tubules.