Figure 3.

From the Monash series study of the US adults (≥18 years old). Significant direct relationships were found between birth weight and glomerular number (A), birth weight and adult height (B), and adult height and glomerular number (C). There is a strong inverse relationship between total glomerular number and mean glomerular volume in which lower numbers of glomeruli predict larger glomerular size (D). The product of total glomerular number and mean glomerular volume represents total glomerular volume (V_glomtotal), an estimate of the filtration capacity of the kidney. V_glomtotal increases with height (E) in a manner that somewhat attenuates the glomerular number/glomerular volume relationship but still indicates that prenatal kidney development attempts to achieve a filtration capacity needed for a predetermined adult body size. In the figures, r denotes Pearson linear regression