[Ultrastructural changes of kidney corpuscles in rats with hereditary stress-induced arterial hypertension]

Comparative electron microscopic study of glomerular apparatus was performed in 6-month old Wistar rats and in rat strain with inherited stress-induced arterial hypertension (ISIAH). It was shown that this stage of hypertensive status formation was characterized by hypertrophy of renal corpuscles, accompanied by structural changes of all their cellular and noncellular components. These included abrupt capillary constriction or dilation, endothelial flattening, podocyte hypertrophy and flattening of their cytopodia, thickening of basal lamina, mesangial volume expansion and increase in the number of intercapillary processes of mesangial cells. Complex of these signs suggests a disturbance of glomerular capillary blood circulation and a functional podocyte stress, compensating these microcirculatory disturbances. Changes in basal membranes and mesangium are indicative of not only increase in filtration barrier functional load, but also of initial stages of glomerular sclerosis.