Table 1.

Labeling densities in different renal glomerular plasma membrane domains

	Young control animals	Young diabetic animals	Old control animals	Old diabetic animals
Endothelial membranes
Luminal	0.28 ± 0.04 (278 μm)	0.55 ± 0.06* (308 μm)	1.02 ± 0.1* (246 μm)	1.19 ± 0.09*† (214 μm)
Abluminal	0.33 ± 0.05 (181 μm)	0.41 ± 0.05* (219 μm)	0.79 ± 0.09* (179 μm)	0.84 ± 0.08*† (146 μm)
Podocyte membranes
Basal	0.13 ± 0.03 (185 μm)	0.27 ± 0.04* (233 μm)	0.55 ± 0.06* (187 μm)	0.56 ± 0.08*† (146 μm)
Apical	0.06 ± 0.01 (488 μm)	0.19 ± 0.03* (547 μm)	0.27 ± 0.03* (427 μm)	0.33 ± 0.04*† (358 μm)
Mesangial cell membranes
Cell processes	0.76 ± 0.09 (317 μm)	0.99 ± 0.12 (255 μm)	2.55 ± 0.19* (354 μm)	2.81 ± 0.19† (392 μm)
Cell body	0.56 ± 0.1 (92 μm)	0.41 ± 0.12 (53 μm)	0.59 ± 0.11 (78 μm)	0.82 ± 0.23* (74 μm)
Mitochondrial membranes	0 (14 μm)	0 (10 μm)	0.05 ± 0.05 (16 μm)	0.07 ± 0.07 (15 μm)

Values are expressed as number of gold particles per μm (mean ± SEM). Numbers in parentheses indicate the total membrane length evaluated. Statistically significant differences (p<0.05) are indicated by (*) when compared to the corresponding membrane domain in the 3-month normoglycemic control group and (†) when the reference group is the 3-month diabetic rats (n = 3 animals/group). No significant differences were found between old control and old diabetic animals.