Morphological description and histological structure of the Hedgehog Kidney (Hemiechinus auritus)

This study was aimed to recognize the morphological description and histological structure of the kidney in hedgehog (Hemiechinus auritus). The morphological results showed that the kidney has a small bean shape and reddish brown color. It was situated on both side of the anterior lumbar vertebra in the abdominal cavity behind the peritoneum. The kidney was surrounded by connective tissues capsule. Histological results clarify that the kidney was characterized by two an regions, outer called cortex and inner called medulla. Glomeruli densely distributed in the cortex region with mean diameter of 78 µm, also the cortex contains segments of proximal convoluted tubules and distal convoluted tubules. On the other hand the medulla region consist of both thick and thin segments of Henle’s loop in addition to sections of collecting tubules which forms radial structures which are known as the medullary rays. The histological results also showed that, the renal corpuscle is formed by the glomeruli that is surrounded by Bowman’s capsule, the proximal convoluted tubules, Henle’s loop, the distal convoluted tubules and collecting tubules. The proximal convoluted tubules connected with Bowman’s capsule and lined by simple cuboidal epithelial tissue based on a basement membrane while the free surface was covered with brush border. The results demonstrated that thin segments of the Henley’s loop were started from the end of the proximal convoluted tubule, extend inside of the medulla and lined by simple squamous epithelial tissue. Whilst the thick segments of the Henle’s loop were lined by simple cuboidal epithelial tissue. The current study clarify that, the distal convoluted tubules were lined by simple cuboidal epithelium rested on basement membrane and the free surface covered by small protrusions. Furthermore, the histological examination revealed that the collecting tubules were lined by simple cuboidal epithelium and the free surface of its cells had a cover of a few and short protrusions.