Cell death during the postnatal morphogenesis of the normal rabbit kidney and in experimental renal polycystosis.

We have studied, by means of optic and electron microscopy, the normal and abnormal cell death that takes place during the postnatal morphogenesis of rabbit kidney, and in the experimental renal polycystosis produced by methylprednisolone acetate. In the normal kidney intertubular cell death can be observed during the first 20 days of the postnatal development. However, cell death in the normal metanephric blastema is a very rare event. In the polycystic kidney numerous dead cells can be seen between the third and forty eighth days after injection. The topography and morphology of the dead cells depend on the stage in the evolution of the disease. In the 'stage of renal immaturity', dying and dead cells are present in the nephrogenic tissue, in the dilating collecting tubules and in the intertubular spaces. In this stage the cellular pathology is essentially nuclear. In the stage of tubular cysts, the dead cells are mostly located in the walls of cysts, with some dead cells, but mostly cellular debris in their lumina. At this stage the cellular pathology is basically cytoplasmic. The dead cells are eventually digested by what appear to be phagocytes of tubular epithelial origin. It is suggested that cell death is an important factor in the evolution of the lesions of renal polycystosis induced by corticosteroids, and probably in the initiation of the pathological process as well.