Deposition of Renal Tubular Epithelial Antigen Along the Glomerular Capillary Walls of Patients with Membranous Glomerulonephritis

Membranous glomerulonephritis (Mb-GN)1 is a primary renal disease in which immunologically characteristic alteration of the glomerular capillary walls, namely the uniform granular deposition of γ- and β1c-globulins along the glomerular capillary walls, is found.

This characteristic immunopathologic finding also has been induced experimentally in animals by the injection of various heterologous antigens and, recently, by the injection of homologous renal tubular epithelial antigen (Tub-Ag) (1). The pathogenesis of these experimental glomerulonephrides, especially the participation of antigen-antibody complexes, has already been well clarified (2, 3).

In human Mb-GN, most investigators are inclined to accept the same immunologic mechanism for the development of the disease. But the antigens which compose the glomerular immune deposits in human idiopathic Mb-GN have not been identified. We have demonstrated with immunofluorescent technique the deposition of Tub-Ag along the glomerular capillary walls of three patients with Mb-GN.

Human Tub-Ag was prepared from autopsied kidneys by the method of Edgington, Glassock, and Dixon (1).