Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Biol. 2021 Jan 7;474:22–36. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2020.12.009

Figure 6. Reniculism as an approach to creating more renal mass.

Figure 6.

A. Mammal model. B. Structure of the adult kidney. The mouse kidney (length 1cm, mass 400mg) is a single lobe with a single papilla. While the human kidney (10–13cm, 110g) contains multiple lobes and papillae, the organ has a fusiform nature with a smooth outer capsule. The bovine kidney is multilobular with persistent separation between lobes with lobes arranged in a single layer. The kidney of the killer whale (>25cm, 4.5kg) is comprised of >1000 individual renicules each with one (82%) or two (18%) papillae that are arranged in up to 8 layers with individual renicules surrounded by separating connecting tissue. All renicules drain into a united ureteric tree for exit via a single ureter. C. Diagram of a longitudinal cross section of a single killer whale reniculate showing dual papillae. C, cortex; OM, outer medulla, IM, inner medulla, CX, calyx. Scale bar = 2.1 mm. D. External view of a single killer whale (Orcinus orca) renicule. Note that not all sulci represent separate lobes. P, papilla, S, sulcus. Killer whale data adapted from [125].