ACTA FAC. MED. NAISS. 2004; 21 (4):201-204

     Original article

Slobodan Vlajković, Marija Daković-Bjelaković, Rade Čukuranović, Vesna Stojanović, Natalija Stefanović

Institute of Anatomy, Medical faculty, Niš, Serbia and Montenegro

    SUMMARY

    Regardless of considerably grow and develope of fetal kidney and his structure parts, they are very modestly studied. The process of growing continues as well in postnatal life, but under more attention by the scientists. Thus, stereological research of fetal kidney is important for us to fully comprehend normal development of its structures. Aim of this study was to establish the measure of participation of three macroscopic structure parts of human fetal kidney: cortex, medulla and sinus, by the factor of gestational age. We tried to determine the periods of their maximal and minimal participation and to compare them during different gestational ages. We analysed 45 pairs of human fetal kidneys, aged from fourth to tenth lunar month. Kidneys were divided into nine groups according to their gestational age. The volume densities of the cortex, medulla and sinus were determined using the stereological methods. The results were statistically elaborated and periods of maximal and minimal participation of these structures were observed. Cortex has its maximal participation in fetal kidney’s volume in X lunar month and minimal in V lunar month. On the other hand, medulla has its maximal participation in V and minimal in X lunar month. Renal sinus has the highest percentage in the period of decrease of medulla’s participation and slow increase of cortex participation. It is useful to know periods of maximal participation of kidney structures because the function of fetal kidney possibly depends on the prevalent portion of cortical or medullar components of the nephron. This study is an effort to provide some parameters which can help in future investigation of the human fetal kidney development.

    Key words: fetal kidney, cortex, medulla, sinus, volume, stereology