IMMUNE-COMPLEX DISEASE .6. SOME DETERMINANTS OF VARIETIES OF GLOMERULAR LESIONS IN CHRONIC BOVINE SERUM ALBUMIN RABBIT SYSTEM

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  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 37  (2) , 162-169
Abstract
Glomerular lesions were evaluated by light, electron and immunofluorescence microscopy in rabbits given daily injections, for prolonged periods of time, of either 12.5 mg of bovine serum albumin (BSA) (group I) or increasing doses of BSA, paralleling the immune response (group II). In animals clearing 12.5 mg or more of BSA/day (excluding those dying of anaphylaxis or unknown causes), marked differences were noted in the incidence of membranous glomerulonephritis (GLN) (50% in group I vs. 15.4% in group II), of crescentic GLN (none in group I vs. 26.9% in group II), and of mesangiopathic GLN (11.1% in group I vs. 30.8% in group II.) On the basis of these variations and immunofluorescence microscopy findings, it is concluded that the occurrence of membranous GLN is favored by the presence in the circulation of small concentrations of soluble immune complexes, whereas crescentic GLN results from the presence of high concentratons of such complexes. When BSA injections were discontinued in group I animals having membranous GLN, the immune deposits were sequestered by membranous transformation so that they were not readily solubilized by injections of large amounts of BSA; one such animal developed crescentic GLN. The observation that BSA was difficult to detect in the lesions of mesangiopathic GLN suggests that this lesion results from the deposition of complexes formed at equivalence or in antibody excess.

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