Early glomerular changes in streptozotocin diabetes of the guinea pig.

This work was to study--using morphometric methods--whether glomerular alterations are demonstrable in the guinea pig kidney even in streptozotocin diabetes of only short duration. In 25, 50, 100 and 150-days diabetes was investigated the blood sugar, the glucose tolerance test, histological and morphometric studies. Storage of glycogen in the kidney was to be found in numerous treated animals whereby it was evident that the cells of the macula densa showed no storage. The morphometric studies performed under blind conditions have shown that with a duration of diabetes of 50 and 100 days the number of cells in the mesangium is increased and that an increase of the mesangial matrix is demonstrable. Hence the mesangium is in the foreground of the initial alterations in diabetes mellitus.