Presence of vesicular bodies and thick basal laminae in the nephron of the desert gerbil Meriones crassus

Presence of cerium-cytochemical reactions of glomerular phosphatases of normal gerbil Meriones crassus: an ultrastructural localization study

Phosphatase cytochemical activity in the normal glomerulus of the desert gerbil Meriones crassus was demonstrated using cerium ions as capturing agents. Three major enzymes have been recognized: sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase), alkaline phosphatase (ALPase) and acid phosphatase (ACPase). However, cytochemical staining for these markers to map their localizations and distributions reveal a high positivity of Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase. This appeared as uniform dense precipitates surrounding the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and the plasma membranes of the epithelial and endothelial cells of the glomerular layers. Negligible ALKase reaction product being over the glomerular epithelia including the GBM. In contrast, the cytochemical profiles of ACPase was unusual, with dense reaction products extensively covering the endoplasmic reticulum at the region of Golgi apparatus products lysosomes (GERL) complex, including its cisternal and tubular elements and the lysosomal-vacuolar apparatus of the glomerular epithelial cells. All other subcellular organelles showed no activity. For Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase, the reaction product was successive when acetate buffer (as decalcifying agent, pH 5.0) was used. This reaction was still seen when a medium containing levamisole was used. Cytochemical controls for all enzymes were incubated in substrate-free media including those using levamisole as an inhibitor of ALPase. The data presented, which is reported for the first time, is not an attempt to determine the contribution of the selected phosphatases in the glomerular physiology and pathology. Such findings may, nevertheless, have functional implications in the fact that these markers may be involved in the ultrafiltration and other metabolic activities of the glomerulus at the molecular and/or cellular level. In addition to earlier morphological and recent histochemical work, the present study updates and recognizes information to be used as a baseline to which the gerbil model can now be employed to investigate the behavioural adaptations of the desert rodents.