Skip Navigation



NDT Advance Access published online on June 6, 2006
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, doi:10.1093/ndt/gfl240
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
21/9/2478    most recent
gfl240v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Matousovic, K.
Right arrow Articles by Mestecky, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Matousovic, K.
Right arrow Articles by Mestecky, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author [2006]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received March 27, 2006
Accepted April 6, 2006

Original Article

IgA-containing immune complexes in the urine of IgA nephropathy patients

Karel Matousovic 1 *, Jan Novak 2 *, Takeshi Yanagihara 2, Milan Tomana 3, Zina Moldoveanu 2, Rose Kulhavy 2, Bruce A. Julian 4, Karel Konecny 5, and Jiri Mestecky 4

1 Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA; Department of Medicine, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague; Department of Medicine I, Faculty of Medicine Plzen, Charles University, Prague
2 Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
3 Department of Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
4 Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
5 Department of Medicine, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Karel Matousovic, E-mail: kmatousovic{at}hotmail.com
Jan Novak, E-mail: jannovak{at}uab.edu



  Abstract

Background. Sera of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients contain high levels of circulating immune complexes composed of IgA1 molecules with aberrantly glycosylated hinge-region O-linked oligosaccharides and IgG or IgA1 antibodies with anti-glycan or anti-hinge-region peptide specificities. Due to damaged sieving properties of the glomerular capillary wall in IgAN, these immune complexes may appear in the urine.

Methods. We collected urine samples from 29 patients with biopsy-proven IgAN (Group I), 27 proteinuric patients with non-IgA nephropathies (Group II) and 28 healthy volunteers (Group III). The levels of urinary IgA and IgG and IgA-IgG-containing immune complexes were measured by ELISA and standardized for urinary creatinine concentrations.

Results. The urinary IgA and IgG levels were significantly higher in Groups I and II than in Group III. Although the excretion of IgA as a fraction of total urinary protein was not significantly greater in IgAN patients than in patients with other renal diseases, the excretion of aberrantly glycosylated IgA1 was observed by western blot in 68% of the IgAN patients but in none of the healthy controls. The urinary levels of IgA-IgG immune complexes were significantly higher in Group I than in Groups II (P < 0.01) and III (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the levels between Groups II and III. These immune complexes had a molecular mass between 650-850 kDa, as shown by size-exclusion chromatography.

Conclusion. The amounts of urinary IgA-IgG-containing immune complexes were significantly higher in patients with IgAN than in patients with non-IgA nephropathies or healthy controls.

Keywords: ELISA; IgA-containing immune complexes; IgA nephropathy; western blot.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.