Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis Type I in Renal Transplantation Patients: A Single-Center Study of a Cohort of 68 Renal Transplants Followed Up for 11 Years

Recurrence of immune complex and complement-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis in kidney transplantation

INTRODUCTION

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) represents a histologic pattern of glomerular injury that may be due to several aetiologies. Few studies have comprehensively analysed the recurrence of MPGN according to the current classification system.

METHODS

We collected a multicentre, retrospective cohort of 220 kidney graft recipients with biopsy-proven native kidney disease due to MPGN between 1981 and 2021 in 11 hospitals. Demographic, clinical and histologic parameters of prognostic interest were collected. The main outcomes were time to kidney failure, time to recurrence of MPGN and disease remission after recurrence.

RESULTS

The study group included 34 complement-mediated and 186 immune complex-mediated MPGN. A total of 81 patients (37%) reached kidney failure in a median follow-up of 79 months. The main predictors of this event were the development of rejection episodes and disease recurrence. In all, 54 patients (25%) had a disease recurrence in a median of 16 months after kidney transplantation. The incidence of recurrence was higher in patients with dysproteinaemia (67%) and complement-mediated MPGN (62%). In the multivariable model, complement-mediated MPGN emerged as a predictor of recurrence. A total of 33 patients reached kidney failure after recurrence. The main determinants of no remission were early time to recurrence (<15 months), estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 and serum albumin <3.5 g/dL at the time of recurrence.

CONCLUSIONS

One-fourth of the patients with native kidney disease due to MPGN developed clinical recurrence in the allograft, especially in cases with complement-mediated disease or in those associated with dysproteinaemia. The kidney outcomes of disease recurrence with currently available therapies are heterogeneous and thus more effective and individualized therapies are needed.

Recurrent glomerulonephritis after kidney transplantation: a practical approach

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This review will provide a practical approach in the assessment of kidney failure patients with primary glomerulonephritides (GN) being considered for kidney transplantation, focusing on high-risk subtypes of immunoglobulin A nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

RECENT FINDINGS

Recurrent glomerulonephritis remains one of the most common causes of allograft loss in kidney transplant recipients. Although the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of glomerulonephritis recurrence occurring after kidney transplantation are relatively well-described, the natural course and optimal treatment strategies of recurrent disease in kidney allografts remain poorly defined. With a greater understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment responses of patients with glomerulonephritis affecting the native kidneys, these discoveries have laid the framework for the potential to improve the management of patients with high-risk glomerulonephritis subtypes being considered for kidney transplantation.

SUMMARY

Advances in the understanding of the underlying immunopathogenesis of primary GN has the potential to offer novel therapeutic options for kidney patients who develop recurrent disease after kidney transplantation. To test the efficacy of novel treatment options in adequately powered clinical trials requires a more detailed understanding of the clinical and histological characteristics of kidney transplant recipients with recurrent glomerulonephritis.

Recurrent Glomerulonephritis in the Kidney Allograft

Renal transplantation is the preferred form of renal replacement therapy in patients who develop end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Among the diverse etiologies of ESKD, glomerulonephritis is the third most common cause, behind hypertensive and diabetic kidney disease. Although efforts to prolong graft survival have improved over time with the advent of novel immunosuppression, recurrent glomerulonephritis remains a major threat to renal allograft survival despite concomitant immunosuppression. As a result, clinical expertise, early diagnosis and intervention will help identify recurrent disease and facilitate prompt treatment, thus minimizing graft loss, resulting in improved outcomes. In this review, we highlight the clinicopathologcal characteristics of certain glomerular diseases that recur in the renal allograft.

Recurrent Glomerulonephritis after Renal Transplantation: The Clinical Problem

Glomerulonephritis (GN) continues to be one of the main causes of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) with an incidence rating from 10.5% to 38.2%. Therefore, recurrent GN, previously considered to be a minor contributor to graft loss, is the third most common cause of graft failure 10 years after renal transplantation. However, the incidence, pathogenesis, and natural course of recurrences are still not completely understood. This review focuses on the most frequent diseases that recur after renal transplantation, analyzing rate of recurrence, epidemiology and risk factors, pathogenesis and bimolecular mechanisms, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and therapy, taking into consideration the limited data available in the literature. First of all, the risk for recurrence depends on the type of glomerulonephritis. For example, recipient patients with anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) disease present recurrence rarely, but often exhibit rapid graft loss. On the other hand, recipient patients with C3 glomerulonephritis present recurrence in more than 50% of cases, although the disease is generally slowly progressive. It should not be forgotten that every condition that can lead to chronic graft dysfunction should be considered in the differential diagnosis of recurrence. Therefore, a complete workup of renal biopsy, including light, immunofluorescence and electron microscopy study, is essential to provide the diagnosis, excluding alternative diagnosis that may require different treatment. We will examine in detail the biomolecular mechanisms of both native and transplanted kidney diseases, monitoring the risk of recurrence and optimizing the available treatment options.

Practical management of C3 glomerulopathy and Ig-mediated MPGN: facts and uncertainties

In recent years, a substantial body of experimental and clinical work has been devoted to C3 glomerulopathy and Ig-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Despite the rapid accumulation of data, several uncertainties about these 2 rare forms of nephropathies persist. They concern their pathophysiology, classification, clinical course, relevance of biomarkers and of pathology findings, and assessment of the efficacy of the available therapies. The present review discusses the impact of these uncertainties on the clinical management of patients.

Clinical course and outcome after kidney transplantation in patients with C3 glomerulonephritis due to CFHR5 nephropathy

BACKGROUND

Complement factor H-related protein 5 (CFHR5) nephropathy is an inherited renal disease characterized by microscopic and synpharyngitic macroscopic haematuria, C3 glomerulonephritis and renal failure. It is caused by an internal duplication of exons 2-3 within the CFHR5 gene resulting in dysregulation of the alternative complement pathway. The clinical characteristics and outcomes of transplanted patients with this rare familial nephropathy remain unknown.

METHODS

This is a retrospective case series study of 17 kidney transplant patients with the established founder mutation, followed-up over a span of 30 years.

RESULTS

The mean (±SD) age of patients at the time of the study and at transplantation was 58.6 ± 9.9 and 46.7 ± 8.8 years, respectively. The 10- and 15-year patient survival rates were 100 and 77.8%, respectively. Proteinuria was present in 33.3% and microscopic haematuria in 58.3% of patients with a functional graft. Serum complement levels were normal in all. 'Confirmed' and 'likely' recurrence of CFHR5 nephropathy were 16.6 and 52.9%, respectively; however, 76.5% of patients had a functional graft after a median of 120 months post-transplantation. Total recurrence was not associated with graft loss (P = 0.171), but was associated with the presence of microscopic haematuria (P = 0.001) and proteinuria (P = 0.018). Graft loss was associated with the presence of proteinuria (P = 0.025).

CONCLUSIONS

We describe for the first time the clinical characteristics and outcome of patients with CFHR5 nephropathy post-transplantation. Despite the recurrence of CFHR5 nephropathy, we provide evidence for a long-term favourable outcome and support the continued provision of kidney transplantation as a renal replacement option in patients with CFHR5 nephropathy.

Kidney Transplantation in C3 Glomerulopathy: A Case Series

RATIONALE & OBJECTIVE

C3 glomerulopathy (C3G), a form of glomerulonephritis associated with dysregulation of the alternative complement pathway, occurs either as dense deposit disease (DDD) or C3 glomerulonephritis (C3GN). Few studies have reported outcomes of patients with C3G after transplantation since its formal classification and the advent of complement-targeting therapies such as eculizumab.

STUDY DESIGN

Case series of C3G.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS

We reviewed laboratory testing, native and allograft biopsy reports, and clinical charts of the 19 patients (12, C3GN; and 7, DDD) from our C3G registry who underwent transplantation between 1999 and 2016.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 76 months, 16 patients had recurrent disease (10 of 12, C3GN; and 6 of 7, DDD), with median time to recurrence of 14 months in C3GN versus 15 months in DDD. Graft failure was more frequent in patients with DDD (6 of 7) than in patients with C3GN (3 of 12), occurred at a median time of 42 months posttransplantation, and was attributed to recurrent disease in half the failures. A rare genetic variant or autoantibody associated with alternative complement pathway abnormalities was detected in 9 of 10 screened patients. Treatment of 7 patients (8 allografts) with eculizumab was associated with variable clinical outcomes.

LIMITATIONS

Incomplete testing for complement pathway abnormalities and genetic defects, incomplete records of HLA antigen matching, lack of centralized biopsy review, and limited sample size.

CONCLUSIONS

In a case series of C3G transplant recipients, the proportion of disease recurrence was high in both C3GN and DDD, although graft loss appeared to occur more frequently in DDD. In a small subset of study patients, eculizumab therapy was not consistently followed by salutary outcomes.

[Current insights about recurrence of glomerular diseases after renal transplantation]

Recurrence of glomerular disease after renal transplantation is a frequent cause of graft loss. Incidence, risk factors and outcome of recurrence are widely due to the underlying glomerular disease. Graft biopsy analysis is required to confirm the definitive diagnosis of recurrence and to start an appropriate therapy that, in some cases, remains challenging to prevent graft failure. Increased use of protocol biopsy and recent advances in our understanding of the pathogenesis of some glomerular diseases with the identification of some relevant biomarkers provide a unique opportunity to initiate kidney-protective therapy at early stages of recurrence on the graft. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the management of many recurrent primary and secondary glomerulonephritis after kidney transplantation.

Recurrence of primary glomerulonephritis: Review of the current evidence

In view of the availability of new immunosuppression strategies, the recurrence of allograft glomerulonephritis (GN) are reported to be increasing with time post transplantation. Recent advances in understanding the pathogenesis of the GN recurrent disease provided a better chance to develop new strategies to deal with the GN recurrence. Recurrent GN diseases manifest with a variable course, stubborn behavior, and poor response to therapy. Some types of GN lead to rapid decline of kidney function resulting in a frustrating return to maintenance dialysis. This subgroup of aggressive diseases actually requires intensive efforts to ascertain their pathogenesis so that strategy could be implemented for better allograft survival. Epidemiology of native glomerulonephritis as the cause of end-stage renal failure and subsequent recurrence of individual glomerulonephritis after renal transplantation was evaluated using data from various registries, and pathogenesis of individual glomerulonephritis is discussed. The following review is aimed to define current protocols of the recurrent primary glomerulonephritis therapy.

Pauci-immune glomerulonephritis in a captive chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), and a review of spontaneous cases in animals

BACKGROUND

Crescentic glomeruli are the hallmark finding in rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) and are characterized by disruption and proliferation of the glomerular capsule and an influx of cells into Bowman's space. Pauci-immune-type RPGN is identified by a lack of immunoglobulins and immune complexes in the glomerular basement membrane.

METHODS

Complete necropsy and histology were performed on the affected chimpanzee. Electron microscopy was performed on kidney sections. A search of the literature was performed to identify spontaneous RPGN in animals.

RESULTS

We report a case of crescentic glomerulonephritis of the pauci-immune-type in a hepatitis C virus-infected 28-year-old male chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) who was humanely euthanized for a cardiac-related decline in health.

CONCLUSION

To our knowledge, this is the first report describing pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis in a non-human primate.

Kidney Transplantation Outcomes across GN Subtypes in the United States

Differences in kidney transplantation outcomes across GN subtypes have rarely been studied. From the US Renal Data System, we identified all adult (≥18 years) first kidney transplant recipients (1996-2011) with ESRD attributed to one of six GN subtypes or two comparator kidney diseases. We computed hazard ratios (HRs) for death, all-cause allograft failure, and allograft failure excluding death as a cause (competing risks framework) using Cox proportional hazards regression. Among the 32,131 patients with GN studied, patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN) had the lowest mortality rates and patients with IgAN or vasculitis had the lowest allograft failure rates. After adjusting for patient- and transplant-related factors, compared with IgAN (referent), FSGS, membranous nephropathy, membranoproliferative GN, lupus nephritis, and vasculitis associated with HRs (95% confidence intervals) for death of 1.57 (1.43 to 1.72), 1.52 (1.34 to 1.72), 1.76 (1.55 to 2.01), 1.82 (1.63 to 2.02), and 1.56 (1.34 to 1.81), respectively, and with HRs for allograft failure excluding death as a cause of 1.20 (1.12 to 1.28), 1.27 (1.14 to 1.41), 1.50 (1.36 to 1.66), 1.11 (1.02 to 1.20), and 0.94 (0.81 to 1.09), respectively. Considering external comparator groups, and comparing with IgAN, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and diabetic nephropathy associated with higher HRs for mortality [1.22 (1.12 to 1.34) and 2.57 (2.35 to 2.82), respectively], but ADPKD associated with a lower HR for allograft failure excluding death as a cause [0.85 (0.79 to 0.91)]. Reasons for differential outcomes by GN subtype and cause of ESRD should be examined in future research.

Reclassification of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis: Identification of a new GN: C3GN

This review revises the reclassification of the membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) after the consensus conference that by 2015 reclassified all the glomerulonephritis basing on etiology and pathogenesis, instead of the histomorphological aspects. After reclassification, two types of MPGN are to date recognized: The immunocomplexes mediated MPGN and the complement mediated MPGN. The latter type is more extensively described in the review either because several of these entities are completely new or because the improved knowledge of the complement cascade allowed for new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Overall the complement mediated MPGN are related to acquired or genetic cause. The presence of circulating auto antibodies is the principal acquired cause. Genetic wide association studies and family studies allowed to recognize genetic mutations of different types as causes of the complement dysregulation. The complement cascade is a complex phenomenon and activating factors and regulating factors should be distinguished. Genetic mutations causing abnormalities either in activating or in regulating factors have been described. The diagnosis of the complement mediated MPGN requires a complete study of all these different complement factors. As a consequence, new therapeutic approaches are becoming available. Indeed, in addition to a nonspecific treatment and to the immunosuppression that has the aim to block the auto antibodies production, the specific inhibition of complement activation is relatively new and may act either blocking the C5 convertase or the C3 convertase. The drugs acting on C3 convertase are still in different phases of clinical development and might represent drugs for the future. Overall the authors consider that one of the principal problems in finding new types of drugs are both the rarity of the disease and the consequent poor interest in the marketing and the lack of large international cooperative studies.

Treatment-resistant recurrent membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis in renal allograft responding to rituximab: case report

We report a case of idiopathic membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) recurring 2 years after a living-unrelated kidney transplantation. The disease was refractory to intravenous immunoglobulin and plasmapheresis. Treatment with 2 doses of rituximab resulted in remission of the disease. The disease relapsed 18 months later after an episode of cytomegalovirus pneumonitis. After treatment of the pneumonitis, a lung biopsy was performed owing to persistent chest symptoms, which revealed bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia. Bone marrow examination and culture revealed presence of acid-fast bacilli, and culture grew Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A repeated course of rituximab was withheld because of infection with tuberculosis, the patient's chest symptoms, and rare reports of noninfectious lung disease after the use of rituximab. The patient continues to have proteinuria with impaired kidney function.

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis recurrence after kidney transplantation: using the new classification

Background

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is an uncommon glomerular disorder that may lead to end stage renal disease (ESRD). With new understanding of the disease pathogenesis, the classical classification as MPGN types I, II, III has changed. Data on post-transplant MPGN, in particular with the newly refined classification, is limited. We present our center’s experience of MPGN after kidney transplantation using the new classification.

Methods

This is a retrospective study of 34 patients with ESRD due to MPGN who received 40 kidney transplants between 1994 and 2014. We reviewed the available biopsies’ data using the new classification. We assessed post transplantation recurrence rate, risk factors of recurrence, the response to therapy and allografts’ survival.

Results

Median time of follow up was 5.3 years (range 0.5–14 years). Using the new classification, we found that pre-transplant MPGN disease was due to immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis (ICGN) in 89 % of cases and complement-mediated glomerulonephritis (CGN) in 11 %. Recurrence was detected in 18 transplants (45 %). Living related allografts (P = 0.045), preemptive transplantations (P = 0.018), low complement level (P = 0.006), and the presence of monoclonal gammopathy (P = 0.010) were associated with higher recurrence rate in ICGN cases. Half of the patients with recurrence lost their allografts. The use of ACEi/ARB was associated with a trend toward less allograft loss.

Conclusions

MPGN recurs at a high rate after kidney transplantation. The risk of MPGN recurrence increases with preemptive transplantation, living related donation, low complement level, and the presence of monoclonal gammopathy. Recurrence of MPGN leads to allograft failure in half of the cases.

In search of an effective treatment for recurrent mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis in the renal allograft

In patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) secondary to mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis (MCGN), recurrent disease post transplantation is a common cause of graft loss. We report a case of a 33-year-old female with ESKD due to idiopathic MCGN who developed recurrent disease in two consecutive renal allografts. Recurrent disease was diagnosed two months after receiving her primary transplant from a live related donor. Oral cyclophosphamide was initiated but discontinued after 10 months due to cystitis. This was followed by rapid deterioration in her renal function. Despite salvage therapy with rituximab, the graft was lost 2 years post transplantation. After 7 years on haemodialysis, the patient received a second graft from a deceased donor. Recurrent MCGN was once again diagnosed one year post transplantation. She was treated with plasma exchange and rituximab. Despite ongoing nephrotic range proteinuria, her graft function remained stable 2 years post transplantation. The optimal therapy for recurrent MCGN is unknown at this stage. It is hoped that a better understanding of its pathogenesis will enable the development of more effective and targeted therapies.