Ultrastructures and morphometry study on the glomeruli of mice chronically intoxicated with Cd

To comprehensively understand the pathological alterations of Cdinduced renal injury,mice were given sc injections of CdCl_2 (1 mg/kg) weekly for one year.Kidney were removed for ultrastructural examinations by trasmission electron microscopy.The Cdinduced ultrastructural alterations were analyzed with morphometric technique.The results showed that the filtration barrier of glomeruli was damaged.The endothelial cells of the capillaries were swollen and thickened.The intraglomerular mesangium was proliferated and the glomerular basement membrane was thickened.There were electrondense materials deposited between the glomerular basement membrane and the endothelial cells.The slit pores between the secondary processes of podocytes were reduced and the slit membrane became thinned.These findings indicate that glomerulus is a target of chronic Cd toxicity and the ultrastructural alterations of the glomeruli by chronic cadmium toxication are similar to the pathological characteristics of the membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.