Transfer of Experimental Auto-Immune Nephrosis in Rats.

Abstract

1. Fourteen pairs of parabiosed litter mates were used. In 9 of these autoimmune nephrosis was produced in one of the paired rats by repeated i.p. injection of rat kidney suspensions incorporated in Freund's complete adjuvants. Nephrotic renal disease was noted in all 9 non-injected parabionts, simultaneously with or shortly after onset of proteinuria in the injected rat. In the 5 parabiosed pairs in which the injected rat failed to develop renal disease, the parabiont that had not been treated did not develop nephrotic renal injury. 2. The same antigenic material was given 3–9 times at 2-week intervals by i.v. injection to 12 rats. Slight and inconsistent proteinuria was noted in 5 and histological alterations of glomerular structures were observed in 2. A nephrotic syndrome of comparable severity was not noted in any of these animals. 3. Suspensions of lymphocytes obtained from the spleens of rats with incipient autoimmune renal disease were given by i.v. injection to 9 litter mates in which immune tolerance had been established at birth. Severe membranous glomerulonephritis was produced in 2 of these animals that had been subjected previously to unilateral nephrectomy. None of the 6 identically treated control rats developed renal disease.