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Previous Volume 346:2053-2060 June 27, 2002 Number 26 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Membranous glomerulonephritis, a major cause of the nephrotic syndrome and chronic renal insufficiency, is associated with a wide spectrum of infections, cancers, autoimmune diseases, and drugs. The condition is characterized by an accumulation of immune deposits on the outer aspect of the glomerular basement membrane, but the target antigens have not been identified. Major contributions to our current understanding of the disease come from Heymann's nephritis, a rat model of membranous glomerulonephritis induced by immunization with an antigenic fraction of the renal brush border.¹ Studies of this experimental rat model led to the identification of megalin, a unique constitutive antigen . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Case Report

Methods

Analysis of Renal-Biopsy Specimen and Immunohistochemical Studies

Western Blotting, Immunoprecipitation, and Enzymatic-Activity Analyses

Transfer of Disease to Rabbits

Analysis of the Composition of the Glomerular Immune Deposits by Confocal Microscopy

Flow Cytometric Analysis of Neutral Endopeptidase Expression on Granulocytes

Results

Analysis of the Renal-Biopsy Specimen from the Infant

Analysis of Antibodies in Serum Samples from the Mother and the Infant

Colocalization of Neutral Endopeptidase and IgG in Immune Deposits

Induction of Renal Disease in Rabbit by the IgG Fraction from the Mother

Analysis of Neutral Endopeptidase Expression in the Parents

Discussion

Source Information

From INSERM Unité 489, Tenon Hospital (H.D., B.M., J.-P.H., P.M.R.), and the Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Armand Trousseau Hospital (V.G., F.D., A.B., G.D.), Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris and University of Paris 6, Paris.

Drs. Debiec, Guigonis, and Mougenot contributed equally to the article.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Ronco at INSERM Unité 489, Hôpital Tenon, 4 rue de la Chine, 75020 Paris, France, or at pierre.ronco@tnn.ap-hop-paris.fr.

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