The pathogenesis of Nephritis induced by viral infection

—the mechanism of exacerbation of renal pathological findings in HIGA mice by viral infection—

Abstract

 In chronic nephritis, renal symptoms are frequently preceded by episodes of upper respiratory tract infections and/or gastrointestinal infections, suggesting viruses as the etiology of this disease. There have been some reports on human nephritis and experimental models associated with acute viral infection, including coxsackie viruses. In order to clarify the pathogenetic role of virus infection on chronic glomerulonephritis, we investigate the efficacy of Coxsackie B4 virus (CoXB4), a most common human enteric pathogen, infection on hyper IgA (HIGA) mice and were analyzed for the presence of enteroviral RNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in IgAN. CoXB4 provoke the exacerbation of HIGA mice renal findings and positive PCR results were obtained for 3 patients (30%) of IgA. Our results suggest that the CoXB4 infection may be one of the factors involved in the mechanism for onset or evolution of IgAN.