The ultrastructure of kidney renal corpuscles of experimental animals after Cladribine (2-CdA) administration.

The renal glomeruli of the kidney of white Wistar rats were examined. The animals were given Cladribine (2-CdA) subcutaneously at dosages of 0.07 mg/kg b.m./24 h for 7 days and 0.1 mg/kg b.m./24 h for 6 days in 3 courses with 5 weeks' break between each. The animals were killed in each instance, 24 hours after the last dose of the drug or 4 weeks after the last dose. The kidney samples were taken for ultrastructural examination. In all of the groups, changes were observed but the intensity differed: widening or narrowing of the urinary space, thickening of the basement membrane of the parietal layer of the Bowman's capsule and the basement membrane of capillaries, and density changes in capillary vessels as well as infiltrations around the renal glomeruli. Most changes were observed in experimental group IV: the picnotic nuclei of epithelium, widening and fusion of the foot processes of podocytes (the narrowing of the filtration spaces) and numerous invaginations of the nuclear envelope of damaged podocytes.