In Vitro Evidence for Cellular Hypersensitivity to Glomerular-Basement-Membrane Antigens in Human Glomerulonephritis

Abstract

The macrophage inhibition assay was used to study in vitro the reactivity of human blood lymphocytes to a soluble preparation of glomerular-basement-membrane antigen. Twenty-one patients with various forms of renal disease, 10 with diseases not affecting the kidney and 13 normal subjects were evaluated. The lymphocytes from six of 14 patients with glomerulonephritis exhibited cellular hypersensitivity to glomerular-basement-membrane antigen, whereas with one exception, lymphocytes from the other subjects failed to do so. Immunofluorescence studies on four of the six patients with positive macrophage inhibition tests revealed that three had concomitant evidence of antibodies directed against the glomerular basement membrane. These results indicate that cellular hypersensitivity is present in certain forms of human glomerulonephritis, and suggest that sensitized lymphocytes may be involved in the pathogenesis of renal damage in this disease.