Studies on the pathogenesis of ischemic cell injury. V. Morphologic changes of the pars convoluta (P1 and P2) of the proximal tubule of rat kidney made ischemic in vitro.

In summary, we have described the time course of changes of mitochondria following ischemia of the kidney proximal tubule. The sequence of morphological changes of matrix as well as inner membrane corresponds well with certain functional or physical parameters such as swelling, respiration, substrate metabolism, acceptor control and P/O ratio. This indicates that morphological parameters can be utilized to predict the functional alterations of mitochondria following ischemia in cells. The significant mitochondrial changes are early loss of granules (15-30 min) and condensation (15 min), swelling (30 min), appearance of fluffy densities (30 min) and flocculent densities (after 60 min), degeneration of cristal structure (240 min) and disintegration of mitochondria as structural units (24 h).