Concurrent antiglomerular basement membrane antibody and immune complex mediated glomerulonephritis

Am J Clin Pathol. 1982 Sep;78(3):381-6. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/78.3.381.

Abstract

A teenage male, with Goodpasture's syndrome and serum antiglomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) antibodies, had a focal proliferative glomerulonephritis with crescents. Immunofluorescence microscopy of his glomeruli using anti-IgG antibodies demonstrated both intense linear GBM staining, and granular subepithelial staining. Electron microscopy revealed numerous subepithelial electron-dense deposits. Identical IgG subclass restriction (dominance of IgG1 and IgG4) of both types of glomerular deposits in this patient supports, but does not prove, a postulate that the linear staining was due to anti-GBM antibodies bound to intact GBM, and that the granular staining was due to anti-GBM antibodies complexed with freed GBM antigens.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Anti-Glomerular Basement Membrane Disease / immunology*
  • Anti-Glomerular Basement Membrane Disease / pathology
  • Antibodies / immunology*
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / immunology*
  • Basement Membrane / immunology
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology
  • Kidney Glomerulus / immunology*
  • Male
  • Microscopy, Electron
  • Staining and Labeling

Substances

  • Antibodies
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex
  • Immunoglobulin G