The human kidney includes ~1 million nephrons which are long U-shaped tubules with convoluted segments that serve as filtration units. During the passage of the ultrafiltrate through a nephron, electrolytes and nutrients are re-absorbed into peritubular capillaries. The fluid remaining in the distal end of the renal tubules flows through the collecting ducts into the ureter. In this study, we generated high-resolution images of mouse kidney sections using confocal microscopy with only two fluorescently tagged biomarkers, F-actin binding phalloidin and CD34 antibodies as a marker for blood vessels. In tile-scan images of entire sections of mouse kidney (composed of >1000 images), the tubule segments are easily identifiable by their F-actin bundles on cell borders and the outlines of the peritubular capillaries by CD34 immunofluorescence. In the inner stripe of the medulla, the vascular bundles composed of vasa recta (straight vessels) could be easily distinguished from the peritubular capillaries by their full circular shapes. The highly vascular inner medulla and the papilla similarly have straight capillaries. About 95% of kidney volume is composed of renal tubules and blood vessels. Thus, our results show that relatively simple cytoskeletal mapping can be used to visualize the structural organization of the kidney. This method can also be applied to examine pathological changes in the kidney.

中文翻译：

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绘制肾脏肾小管和周围肾小管毛细血管的细胞骨架结构

人类肾脏包括约 100 万个肾单位，这些肾单位是长 U 形小管，具有作为过滤单元的回旋段。在超滤液通过肾单位的过程中，电解质和营养物质被重新吸收到肾小管周围毛细血管中。残留在肾小管远端的液体通过集合管流入输尿管。在这项研究中，我们使用共聚焦显微镜生成了小鼠肾脏切片的高分辨率图像，仅使用两种荧光标记的生物标记物，F-肌动蛋白结合鬼笔环肽和 CD34 抗体作为血管标记物。在小鼠肾脏整个切片的平铺扫描图像（由超过 1000 个图像组成）中，可以通过细胞边界上的 F-肌动蛋白束和 CD34 免疫荧光显示的管周毛细血管的轮廓轻松识别肾小管段。在髓质的内条纹中，由直管（直管）组成的维管束可以通过其完整的圆形形状轻松地与管周毛细血管区分开。血管丰富的内髓质和乳头同样具有直的毛细血管。肾脏体积的约95%由肾小管和血管组成。因此，我们的结果表明，相对简单的细胞骨架图谱可用于可视化肾脏的结构组织。该方法也可用于检查肾脏的病理变化。