1982 Volume 24 Issue 6 Pages 625-640
The immune process is responsible for many forms of glomerulonephritis in man, but the chracterization of the antigens in glomerular immune complex has been little elucidated. The purpose of this paper is to study the characterization of the immune complex dcposited in glop meruli of membranous nephropathy (M. N.), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), lupus nephritis, IgA nephropathy and Schöenlein-Henoch purpura (S.H.P.) Nine cases of lupus nephritis, seven cases of MN, two cases of MPGN, seven cases of IgA nephropathy and one case of S.H.P. are studied. Immunof luorescence studies revealed granular IgG deposits of all cases of lupus nephritis, MN and MPGN, and mesangial IgA deposits of all cases of IgA nephropathy and S.H.P. These renal frozen sections are performed dissociation test of IgG from the glomeruli. Renal frozen sections were incubated with human Fr II, human IgG, human IgA, human FxIA, DNA, rabbit Fr II, rat Fr II, and bovine Fr II for 6 hours at room temperature changing in PBS, and then these specimens were stained with FITC-conjugated anti-human IgG or IgA antibody. In all cases of lupus nephritis, MN and MPGN, the IgG deposits in glomeruli disappeared following incubation with human Fr II and human IgG, especially heat aggregated human Fr II. These results suggested that the immune complex deposits in glomeruli of lupus nephritis, MN, and MPGN consisted of the patients own denatured IgG and IgG rheumatoid factor.
