Light- and electron-microscopic analysis of the kidney in newborn rats exposed to gentamicin in utero

• Published in: The American journal of pathology Vol. 130; no. 1; pp. 33 - 43
• Main Authors: Gilbert, T, Nabarra, B, Merlet-Benichou, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bethesda, MD ASIP 01.01.1988; American Society for Investigative Pathology
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Drug toxicity and drugs side effects treatment; Female; Gentamicins - toxicity; Kidney - embryology; Kidney - pathology; Kidney - ultrastructure; Maternal-Fetal Exchange; Medical sciences; Microscopy, Electron; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Pregnancy; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Toxicity: urogenital system; Toxicity; Aminoglycoside; Animal
• ISSN: 0002-9440; 1525-2191

Kidneys of newborn rats, whose mothers were given 75 mg/kg of gentamicin daily from the tenth day of gestation to its term, were examined by light and electron microscopy, as were kidneys of control rats whose mothers were given saline during the same period. In the gentamicin-treated group, the numbers of differentiated glomeruli and of S-shaped bodies counted in a median cross-section of the kidney were reduced, compared with those in the control group, but the glomerular volume was the same. In newborn rats issued from gentamicin-treated mothers, the proximal tubular lumen of the mature nephron lying in the deepest cortex was dilated, and their proximal tubular cells exhibited extensive damage, resembling that described in tubular cells of adult rats exposed to gentamicin. The subcapsular nephrogenic zone exhibited focal alterations of cytoplasmic organelle membranes, as well as nuclear lesions of several types, in cells of the nephron anlagen of the undifferentiated metanephric blastema, which were otherwise of normal appearance.