[Ultrastructure of the internal medullary substance of the kidney in rodents of an arid zone].

Peculiar ultrastructural features of the kidney internal medullary substance have been studied in some typical representatives of the Middle Asia desert and semi-desert fauna (Spermophilopsis leptodactylus and Meriones erythrourus). Papillary organization in the species studied has a specific high differentiation of the fine nephron loop (Henle's) parts; flattening (especially in Meriones erythrourus) of epithelium in the collecting tubes while its cytoplasm is rather poor in organelle; high contents of the interstitial cells and their tight junction with canaliculi, capillaries, floccular material of the interstitial tissue; thinning of the interstitial sheets, especially between the collecting tubes and vessels, presence of collagene fibres in the interstitium, that is especially, specific for all the species of the Spermophilopsis leptodactylus studied. It is possible to suppose that development of similar features in the structure of the kidney internal medullary substance, where the main water resorption takes place in the species investigated, is connected with their life in similar environmental conditions with low hydratation level and is aimed to increase efficiency of the concentrating apparatus work.