Aim: Blind mole rats can live in tunnels which are goosed by them underground, in environments that have quite low-oxygen ratio. Contrary most rodents, they can carry out high levels of metabolic rate under these conditions. The present study aimed out to compare the blind mole rats and rats's renal podocyte, an important cell for maintaining the normal structure and function of the glomerulus.

Materials and Methods: Blind mole rat (Male) (n=6) and rats (Male) (n=6) were used in this study. The morphologic features of the renal podocytes of blind mole rat and rat kidneys were examined by using scanning electron microscopic (SEM).

Results: While the length, width and thickness of blind mole rat kidney were 15.6±0.25, 9.60±0.24 and 7.80±0.37 cm, in rats were 16.00±0.89, 9.40±0.74, 6.20±1.35 cm, respectively. When compared Bowman's capsule diameters and Bowman slits of blind mole rat, the rat was measured to be larger. The mean length of Pedicel spacing (Filtration slits) of blind mole rat and rats were found to be 0.049±0.003 μm and 0.073±0.004 μm, respectively. The podocyte pedicels were uniform needle-like shapes, and its length was ranging from 0.88 to 1.02 μm. They were in contact with each other intertwined processes in both species investigated.

Conclusion: The podocyte of blind mole rat is morphologically similar to rat's. In both species, between to diameter of the glomerulus were not statistically significant differences (P>0.05). Furthermore, there were not statistically significant differences in the length, the width and the thickness of both species' kidneys (P>0.05).