Renal Vasculature Changes in SHR Rats

Presenter Information

Jolene Smith, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 255

Start Date

25-4-2005 1:15 PM

End Date

25-4-2005 3:15 PM

Student's Major

Biological Sciences

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Michael Bentley

Mentor's Department

Biological Sciences

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Description

Hypertension causes morphological and physiological changes to occur in renal vasculature. Some of these changes are that renal blood flow increases along with elevated afferent glomerular arteriolar resistance. The purpose of this study is to investigate morphology changes in the renal vasculature, using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The renal vasculature of spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR) was compared to that of control Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. The rats were anesthetized, then the vasculature in the kidney was filled with Mercox resin. The kidneys were taken out and the tissue was digested leaving the plastic cast to be examined with SEM. Preliminary results have shown a decrease in the diameter of the afferent arteriole and a decrease in the diameter of the glomeruli in the SHR rats. It also appeared that the afferent arteriole length may be longer in the WKY rats. If these preliminary observations are true, then it can be concluded that these morphological changes in renal vasculature accompany the physiological changes that occur with hypertension.