ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Urologica e Nefrologica 2002 September;54(3):163-71

Copyright © 2002 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Nuclear size measurements in collecting tubules of the rat kidney in establishing the effect of hypokinesia on the kidney morphology

Zorbas Y. G. ¹, Afonin V. B. ¹, Charapakhin K. P. ², Denogratov S. D. ²

¹ Kosmic Biology and Medicine Institute Krasno Selo, Sofia, Bulgaria 2 Hypokinetic Physiology Laboratory Athens, Greece

Back­ground. Hypo­ki­ne­sia (­reduced ­motor activ­ity) induc­es sig­nif­i­cant tis­sue mor­pho­log­i­cal chang­es, how­ev­er, it is not ­known if hypo­ki­ne­sia (HK) ­could con­trib­ute to mor­pho­log­i­cal chang­es in the kid­ney. Meas­ur­ing the nucle­ar ­size in the ­inner medul­lary col­lect­ing ­ducts on the kid­ney of ­rats the aim of ­this inves­ti­ga­tion was to dis­close kid­ney mor­pho­log­i­cal chang­es dur­ing pro­longed HK.
Meth­ods. Stud­ies ­were ­done on 192 13-­week-old ­male ­rats (370 to 390 g) dur­ing 15 ­days pre-HK peri­od and 90 ­days HK peri­od. ­Rats ­were equal­ly divid­ed ­into 2 ­groups: vivar­i­um con­trol ­rats (VCR) and hypo­ki­net­ic ­rats (HKR). All HKR ­were ­kept in ­small indi­vid­u­al cag­es.
­Results. A sig­nif­i­cant (p<0.05) ­increase in ­size of col­lect­ing ­duct ­nuclei of the kid­ney, plas­ma aldos­te­rone (PA), plas­ma and uri­nary Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) and ­fluid ­loss, a sig­nif­i­cant (p<0.05) ­decrease of ­fluid ­intake, ­body ­weight and plas­ma anti­diu­ret­ic hor­mone (ADH) ­observed in HKR ­when com­pared ­with ­their pre-HK val­ues and the val­ues in VCR. The meas­ured param­e­ters ­change insig­nif­i­cant­ly (p>0.05) in VCR ­when com­pared ­with ­their pre-HK val­ues.
Con­clu­sions. It was con­clud­ed ­that the nucle­ar ­size in the ­inner medul­lary col­lect­ing ­ducts of the kid­ney increas­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing pro­longed HK. The rea­son for ­this reac­tion ­remains ­unclear.