Diabetes insipidus and compulsive water drinking are representative of two categories of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) lack. We studied a strain of rats with congenital diabetes insipidus homozygote (DI) and normal rats on an isocaloric fortified dilute milk diet. In both cases, the collecting tubules could not concentrate urine. Special staining techniques, Alcian Blue-PAS for light microscopy and lanthanum nitrate for electron microscopy were used to demonstrate the changes in interstitial mucopolysaccharides (MPS). The lanthanum staining was done according to the method of Khan and Overton.Electron microscopy shows cytoplasmic lesions, vacules, swelling and degenerating mitochondria and intercellular spaces (IS) in the collecting tubule cells in DI and rats on milk diet.
