Cytochemical Differences in Kidneys from Winter-hibernating and Aroused Bats (myotis Lucifugus), with Particular Reference to the Golgi Zone

Kidneys from winter bats (Myotis lucifugus) were removed and fixed in cold formalin-calcium while the animals were in the following states: (a) natural hibernation; (b) arousal from hibernation for 24 hours; (c) laboratory maintained hibernation; and (d) no hibernation since the previous winter. With fixed frozen sections, the lead salt method of Wachstein and Meisel with adenosine triphosphate as substrate (pH 7.2) showed enzymic activity localized in large vacuoles and smaller vesicles or droplets in the Golgi region of distal and proximal tubular epithelial cells of kidneys from hibernating bats. No ATPase activity was detected in the basal lamellae of tubular epithelium from hibernating bats. ATPase activity in the Golgi region was not seen in cells from kidney tubules of bats aroused from hibernation 24 hours previously or of animals that had not hibernated, whereas activity for ATPase was present in the basal infoldings of tubular epithelium from these animals. Inosine di- and triphosphatase and calcium activated ATPase activities were also detected in the Golgi region of hibernating bats but were not present in the basal infoldings of tubular epithelium from active animals. There was little or no activity toward the mono- and diphosphates of adenine, thiamine pyrophosphate, and the di- or triphosphates of guanidine, cytidine, or deoxyadenosine. The loss of enzymic activity from the Golgi region of the tubular epithelium from hibernating bats and its increase in the region of the basal infoldings of tubular epithelium in aroused bats suggests that the Golgi region plays a role in the synthesis of enzymic protein usually identified with the external cell membrane.