Contributions of Camillo Golgi to renal histology and embryology

Camillo Golgi was awarded the Nobel prize in 1906 for his studies on the fine anatomy of the central nervous system. His wide present popularity depends on his discovery of the cell apparatus, the tendon mechanoreceptor and the tactile corpuscles of the fingertips that are named after him. However, Golgi also made important contributions to nephrology. In 1882, he published novel observations on the mechanism of renal hypertrophy, which he understood to be due to renal cell proliferation. Two years later, he described tubular cell mitoses in the kidney of a patient with tubulointerstitial nephritis, which he interpreted as an essential part of the repair process. His most important findings, published in 1889, were obtained by studying the microscopic anatomy of the kidney with an original technique that allowed the isolation of whole intact nephrons. He discovered that the ascending limb of Henle's loop always returned to the glomerulus from which the tubule originated, and he realized that the early distal tubule passed between the glomerular arterioles. In addition, applying the same method to dissect nephrons in progressive phases of development, he identified exactly what tubular segments originated from the various parts of the metanephric early S-shaped structure.