A new method for the isolation of ultrastructurally preserved glomeruli.

A method is described for the isolation of kidney glomeruli using centrifugation in a discontinuous Ficoll gradient. The method, applied to rats, rabbits, pigs and man, yields a glomerular fraction of high purity with a tubular contamination of normally less than 2%. From observations by light microscopy on epoxy resin-embedded fractions, one-third to one-fourth of the glomeruli had suffered only slight damage during isolation. In the electron microscope these best preserved glomeruli showed a close morphologic similarity to those of the intact tissue and preliminary experiments have indicated that they are well-suited for further studies of the in vitro behavior of isolated, viable glomeruli.