Electron Microscopy of the Avian Renal Glomerulus

Electron microscopy of sections of chicken glomeruli shows them to possess a large central cell mass, occupying the hilum and the centre of the glomerulus, and continuous with the adventitia of the afferent and efferent arterioles. The glomerular capillaries form a much simpler system than in mammals and are spread over the surface of the central cell mass. Between the capillaries the mass is limited externally by the major component of the glomerular capillary basement membrane, which continues over the surface of the mass from one capillary to the next. Projections of the central cell mass characteristically form the support for glomerular capillaries, and smaller knobs of the central mass may project actually into the lumen of the capillaries, but always carry a layer of endothelial cytoplasm before them. They are never in direct contact with blood. The basement membrane of the glomerular capillary loop has a central dense layer and two lateral less dense layers as in mammals. The central dense layer is continuous with similar appearing dense material in the intercellular spaces of the adventitiae of the arterioles, and also with that of the central cell mass. The two less dense layers can also be traced into direct continuity with the less dense regions of this intercellular substance. The endothelial cytoplasm is spread as a thin sheet over the inner surface of the capillary basement membrane, and shows scattered "pores" resembling those described in mammals. Epithelial cells with interlacing pedicels are at least as prominent as those in mammals. Bowman's capsular membrane also possesses three layers similar to but less wide than those of the capillary basement membrane, and all three layers can be traced into continuity with the dark and light regions of the intercellular material of the adventitial cells of the arterioles, and beyond them with that of the central cell mass. At the hilum Bowman's capsular membrane also fuses with the capillary basement membrane.