Size and weight of glomeruli isolated from human diabetic and nondiabetic kidneys.

A sieving technique was used to isolate human glomeruli and to fractionate them by size in order to determine whether nondiabetic and diabetic glomeruli can be separated from one another on the basis of size and mass and to observe the effects of diabetes on the physical properties of glomeruli. The kidneys studied were from five diabetic patients and five nondiabetic controls that were age- and sex-matched. About 40 percent of the glomeruli in the samples of renal tissues were isolated for study. The preparations consisted of more than 90 percent glomeruli, and over 90 percent of the glomeruli were isolated whole. The mean diameter of the diabetic glomeruli was 45 percent greater than that of nondiabetic glomeruli. The mean mass of the diabetic glomeruli was 2.5 times greater than the mean nondiabetic glomerular mass.