Morphometric study of the ultrastructure of nephrons and collecting tubules in the kidney of rats with renal and spontaneous hypertension.

The convoluted proximal and straight distal tubules and the medullary collecting ducts in kidneys of rats with ischaemic renal hypertension and with genetic spontaneous hypertension were studied by means of electron microscopic morphometry. The volume of mitochondria, the area of their cristae, of the outer surface and of membranes of the intercellular labyrinth, and other ultrastructural characterisitcs were calculated. No significant differences were found in proximal tubules between experimental and control animals, although in the distal tubules in both experiments the coefficient characterizing the level of morphologic organization of mitochondria, which takes into account their basic morphometric parameters, was reduced in hypertensive animals as compared with the intact ones. The volume of mitochondria and the area of their cristae in collecting ducts, and also the area of membranes of the intercellular labyrinth were increased. Our results suggest that in hypertension the reabsorption of substances from the proximal tubules is essentially normal, that it is reduced at the beginning of the distal tubules but is intensified in the collecting ducts.