Morphometric and histological quantitative analysis of nephron during development of human fetal kidney in later half of gestation

Introduction: Normal development of the fetal kidney in prenatal period is crucial to neonatal outcome and knowledge of the fetal kidney is important for the identification of abnormalities. Aim: To study morphometric and histological quantitative changes of nephrons during the development of the kidney in later half of gestation. Material and method: The study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, Pt.J.N.M.Medical College Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. The material for study (fetuses) were obtained from the labour room of the R.N.T.District hospital Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh. A total of 42 kidneys of gestational aged between16 weeks to 40 weeks, were taken from cases of abortions, stillbirth from premature and normal deliveries with apparently normal history of gestation. Fetal kidneys dissected out, histological slides were made, stained with Haematoxylin & eosin and observed under projection microscope. Result: in current study volume and weight, Crown lump length are continuous increases along with increase their developing gestation age. Growth of the kidney was occurring throughout prenatal life, but is more marked after 28 weeks. After this the numerical density of the glomeruli decreases, in spite of an increase in total number of glomerli. Conclusion: Numerical density of glomeruli per cubic m.m of kidney tissue was found to increase from 294.9 at 16 weeks gestational age to 430 in 28 weeks, but after 28 weeks a steady decline was seen up to 40 weeks when the density decreased to 339.9 .Except for the period between 16 week and 20 weeks and between 32 and 36 weeks .Significant variation was seen between different age groups