Kidney Basement Membrane Thickness

The basement membrane of the chimpanzee renal glomerulus is similar to that of humans. However, it is not as thick, measuring 2,200 Angstroms, whereas in the human the glomerular basement membrane has been found to measure approximately 3,288 Angstroms.  In addition, the chimpanzee renal glomerular basement membrane is extremely variable in thickness and often exhibits fusiform and sometimes localized thickening.

There also appears to be evidence of fusion of the "foot processes" of many of the visceral epithelial cells in the chimpanzee glomerulus. However, the animals are free of proteinuria (protein loss in the urine), which is observed in humans with certain diseases involving foot process fusion.