Osmotic nephrosis Osmotic nephrosis Osmotic nephrosis refers to structural changes that occur at the cellular level in the human kidney. Cells, primarily of the straight proximal tubule, swell due to the formation of large vacuoles in the cytoplasm. These vacuoles occur in the presence of large amounts of certain solutes circulating in the tubules. However, despite the condition's name, the solutes do not cause change through osmotic forces but through pinocytosis. Once inside the cytoplasm, pinocytic vacuoles combine with each other and with lysosomes to form large vacuoles that appear transparent under microscopic examination. There may be no symptomatic presentation with this
Wallerian degeneration effect is due to its presence in axonal and terminal compartments. The protection provided by the WldS protein is intrinsic to the neurons and not surrounding support cells, and is only locally protective of the axon, indicating an intracellular pathway is responsible for mediating Wallerian degeneration. The mutation causes no harm to the mouse. The only known effect is that the Wallerian degeneration is delayed by up to three weeks on average after injury of a nerve. At first, it was suspected that the "Wld" mutation slows down the macrophage infiltration, but recent studies suggest that the mutation protects axons