Renal morphogenesis of rat fetus

Abstract

The Kidneys, during pro-, meso-, and metanephros stages of the development of the nephrotome, display different structural features. In this work, the renal tissue samples obtained from prenatal 10-, 13-, 14-, 15-, 16-, 18- and 19-day old rat fetuses have been stained with Hematoxylen-Eosin, Mallory Azan and Van-Gieson following routine light microscopical technique and examined under the light microscope in order to follow up the fetal renal development. Findings of the present study indicated that the pronephric kidney could be seen on prenatal day 10 whereas the metanephric kidney was apparent on days 15-18. However, mesonephric kidney developed poorly for a short time period on days 14-15. No developed glomeruli could be traced in the kidneys where dense mesenchymal tissue and tubuli take place in the early stage of development. In this period, tubuli with closed lumens and covered with multilayered epithelium attained a structure similar to that of the tubuli observed in the adult following the 18th day. In addition, immature glomeruli developed on prenatal days 16-19. In conclusion, the development of the rat kidney started on prenatal day 10 and continued throughout the intrauterine life. On the other hand, the neonatal rat kidney did not display morphological features similar to those seen in mature rat kidney.