Nephrons are the functional units of the kidney, coordinated with surrounding nephrons through the vasculature to filter blood plasma. We used in vitro CFE-MRI combined with Gd-DTPA contrast enhanced MRI to dynamically map single nephron physiology throughout the isolated, perfused rat kidney. We were able to map the heterogeneity and spatial variability of macromolecular binding and single nephron filtration. MRI appears to measure similar dynamics in single nephron filtration as intra-vital optical microscopy, with the advantage of measuring all nephrons in the kidney.
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