Glomerular diseases, including diabetes and various forms of glomerulonephritis, account for more than 70% of patients undergoing renal transplantation. Among these patients, more than 40% develop significant proteinuria, and around 15% develop persistent nephrotic syndrome. The most common cause of posttransplantation proteinuria is chronic allograft nephropathy (60%), followed by recurrent (1...

A unique monoclonal Ig lambda light chain dimer (protein LOI) was isolated from the serum and urine of a patient with hypocomplementemic membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. In vitro the lambda light chain dimer efficiently activated the alternative pathway of complement (AP). When added to normal human serum, LOI temporarily enhanced AP hemolytic activity, but during a prolonged incubatio...

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (GN) may be pathogenically associated with infection due to the hepatitis C virus (HCV) as many clinical cases have shown. The potential relationship between the HCV and IgA GN, by contrast, has been suggested only in isolated cases. IgA nephropathy recurs in up to 50% of cases after renal transplantation, but it is uncommon for it to appear as a de novo...

A number of experimental immunologic models of glomerulonephritis have been devised in animals in order to better understand mechanisms of immune glomerular injury. From these studies two general pathogenic categories have been defined (1). The first, immune complex injury, involves the interaction of circulating host or foreign antigen with antibody resulting in the formation of soluble comple...

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is characterized by proliferation of mesangial and endothelial cells and by thickening of the peripheral capillary walls. Type II of the MPGN is associated with complement abnormalities which are factor H deficiencies due to mutations in the complement factor H (CFH) gene. We report a 15-year-old boy diagnosed with MPGN II in whom genetic analyses...