Predilection of segmental glomerulosclerosis lesions for the glomerulotubular junction area in type 1 diabetic patients: a novel mapping method.

The location of segmental glomerular lesions in relation to the vascular or tubular pole may have diagnostic or prognostic significance. We have developed a model-based method to estimate the distance from a glomerular lesion to a given landmark (vascular or tubular pole) or the glomerular center and applied this to biopsies from 5 microalbuminuric, 5 normoalbuminuric and 7 proteinuric type 1 diabetic patients and 5 normal controls. The distance from each glomerular adhesion to the glomerulotubular junction was measured and divided by the glomerular radius, allowing comparability among different glomeruli, assuming a spherical shape for Bowman's capsule, an assumption which was validated. The frequency of adhesions in 6 glomerular zones with equal height (zone I adjacent to the glomerulotubular junction and zones II-VI progressively farther away) was determined: 59% of adhesions were in zone I, 15% in zone II, 16% in zone III, 7% in zone IV and 3% in zone VI (adjacent to the hilus). In glomeruli with only one adhesion, 82% of these were in zone I. This new method accurately localizes segmental lesions within glomeruli and revealed a marked predilection in type 1 diabetic patients for segmental sclerosis to develop at the glomerulotubular junction.