Preparation of renal papillary collecting duct cells for studyin vitro

The mammalian kidney is comprised of a heterogeneous array of tubules and blood vessels. Over the years the function of the individual nephron segments in the production of urine has been reasonably well defined by micropuncture andin vitro microperfusion techniques. Beyond this descriptive step, however, to clarify the mechanisms of solute and water transport, it is necessary to study cellular compartments, specifically. Several techniques are used currently for cell studies, but in each the usefulness is limited. For example, thin slices of kidney tissue contain a variety of cell types as do suspensions of kidney cortex [1]. By dissectionin vitro it is possible to isolate specific segments of nephron, but the mass of tissue is insufficient for the limits of resolution of many analytical techniques [2]. The purpose of this report is to describe a method for collecting milligram quantities of viable cells from the papillary collecting duct of the rabbit kidney