Podocytes form an outer aspect of the glomerular capillary wall and play a decisive role in its permeability for macromolecules. The main podocyte surface antigen podocalyxin, a highly electronegative sialoglycoprotein, prevents the podocyte foot processes from collapsing. Podocyte damage in glomerular disease is supposed to be accompanied by podocyte detachment, and shed podocytes and their fr...

The second most common cause of chronic renal failure is glomerulonephritis, which is a collective term used for numerous diseases with the common denominator of histological renal inflammation emanating from the glomerular tuft. Whether all forms of glomerulonephritis should be considered as autoimmune disease is debatable, but immune mechanisms are important in all of them. This review focuse...

Glomerular diseases, including diabetes and various forms of glomerulonephritis, account for more than 70% of patients undergoing renal transplantation. Among these patients, more than 40% develop significant proteinuria, and around 15% develop persistent nephrotic syndrome. The most common cause of posttransplantation proteinuria is chronic allograft nephropathy (60%), followed by recurrent (1...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW A combination of systemic autoimmunity and tissue response to immune injury underlie renal involvement in lupus erythematosus. In this review, we discuss recent literature investigating pathogenetic mechanisms of lupus glomerulonephritis. RECENT FINDINGS In lupus glomerulonephritis, glomerular immune complexes were believed to be the primary mediators of renal disease. Recen...

Renal transplantation is a treatment, not a cure. Although transplantation may return renal function to the recipient, it does not necessarily remove the cause of the recipient’s original renal disease. Glomerulonephritis is the cause of renal failure for 20 to 40% of those who receive a transplant; for these recipients, the threat of recurrent disease is real. The transplant setting of immunos...

Glomerulonephritis is a common cause of end-stage renal disease. Infiltrating leukocytes interacting with renal cells play a critical role during the initiation and progression of glomerulonephritis, but the exact mechanisms are not clearly defined. By using the murine model of nephrotoxic nephritis, we investigated the role of S100A8/A9 [myeloid-related protein (MRP) 8/14, calprotectin] in pro...

A number of experimental immunologic models of glomerulonephritis have been devised in animals in order to better understand mechanisms of immune glomerular injury. From these studies two general pathogenic categories have been defined (1). The first, immune complex injury, involves the interaction of circulating host or foreign antigen with antibody resulting in the formation of soluble comple...