The anionic barrier system on the mesonephric renal glomerulus of the brown hagfish, Paramyxine atami Dean (Cylostomi).

The distribution of anionic groups of acid mucopolysaccharides on the surface of glomerular constituents of a brown hagfish, Paramyxine atami Dean, has been studied morphologically. The ionized anionic groups of acid mucopolysaccharides were labeled on fixed tissues by staining with cationic cacodylate iron colloid (Fe-Cac) at pH 4.0. The glomerular permeability to cationic and anionic macromolecules was observed morphologically in the kidney of the animal injected with native anionic ferritin (NF) or cationized ferritin (CF) into the dorsal aorta. Histochemical staining of tissues with Fe-Cac (pH 4.0) revealed the ionized anionic groups of acid mucopolysaccharides on both luminal and abluminal surfaces of endothelial cells, within the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), and on the visceral epithelial cell surface facing the urinary space. The CF molecules introduced into the dorsal aorta easily passed through the fenestrae of the capillary endothelial cell layer and the thick fibrillar GBM, reaching the urinary space to be adsorbed to the visceral epithelial cell surface or taken up by these visceral epithelial cells. On the other hand, NF hardly passed through the capillary wall. These results show that the nonosmoregulating mesonephric glomerulus of the brown hagfish has a working anionic barrier system. The function of its glomerulus is compared to that of the mammalian metanephric glomerulus.