Histochemical characteristics of the basement membranes of the parietal podocytes in the rabbit kidney. A light- and electron-microscopic study.

The patterns of silver affinity and following treatment with guanidine were studied in the basement membrane produced by pareital podocytes induced by corticoids in newborn rabbits. The goal of this study was to analyze the role of the different cell types of the renal corpuscle in the determination of the histochemical characteristics of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM). Jones' method shows that while the GBM exhibited silver affinity only after periodic-acid oxidation, the basement membrane of parietal podocytes exhibits the same histochemical characteristics as the normal parietal basement membrane, appearing deep black both after periodic-acid or permanganate oxidation, and after elastase or lysozyme digestions. Since the treatment with guanidine shows that the basement membrane of the parietal podocytes lacks the endothelial component typical of the GBM, it may be suggested that the special resistance to silver impregnation exhibited by the basement membrane after permanganate oxidation or after different enzymatic digestions is due to its endothelial component.