Ultrastructural changes in the nephron and renal protein cleaving function in suckling rabbits with experimental cholera.

Immature nephrons and the presence of a proteolytic system mediating extracellular protein digestion in the epithelium of proximal tubules are characteristic features of renal cortical ultrastructure in intact 10-12-day-old suckling rabbits. Cholera infection is accompanied by intensive cleavage of exogenous protein, which starts in podocytes and is completed in the cytoplasm of the proximal tubule epitheliocytes. Overload to nephron associated (in addition to urine production) with intensive extracellular hydrolysis impairs nephrothelium reactivity and increases its vulnerability to cholera exo- and endotoxins and their mediators.