BACKGROUND T helper (Th)1/Th2 balance determines the direction of some kinds of autoimmune diseases. Th1 cytokines, especially interferon (IFN)-gamma has been proven important in the pathogenesis in lupus. The present study examined the effects of administration of interleukin (IL)-4 (Th2 cytokine) expressing plasmid DNA (IL-4pDNA) on the development of glomerulonephritis and survival in lupus-...

Viral infections may trigger immune complex glomerulonephritis via Toll-like receptors (TLR), as certain TLR trigger immunity upon recognition of viral nucleic acids. On the basis of previous findings regarding viral double-stranded RNA and TLR3 in experimental lupus erythematosus, a similar role for TLR7 that recognizes viral single-stranded RNA was hypothesized. Immunostaining of kidney secti...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the generation of autoantibodies against a diverse array of self-antigens. The B cells producing immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to double-stranded DNA appear to play a main role in the disease progression. Their specific elimination is a reasonable mechanism for effective therapy of SLE. The presently used approache...

Methods Children aged 5-19 years with SLE (> 2 ICD-9 codes of 710.0) were identified from Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) data, containing all inpatient and outpatient claims codes for Medicaid patients for all 50 U.S. States, 2002-2004. Within this group, lupus nephritis was identified from billing codes for > 2 of a range of ICD-9 codes for glomerulonephritis, proteinuria and renal failure (P...

Introduction Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the main clinical presentations determining the course and outcome of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in children. It occurs in 40–80% of pediatric patients at presentation and can be even higher during the later stages of the disease. The severity of the disease varies from mild glomerulonephritis to severe manifestations leading to end-stage rena...

Systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic scleroderma are autoimmune diseases thought to have an exogenous trigger. This review summarizes relevant case-control and cohort studies that investigated exogenous sex hormones, silica, silicone, solvents, pesticides, mercuric chloride, and hair dyes as putative risk factors for the development of these diseases. These studies indicate that estrogen r...

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...

BACKGROUND Mannose-binding lectin (MBL), a member of the collectin family, binds to various oligosaccharides and activates the classical pathway of complement independent from C1q. At present it is unknown whether this so-called lectin pathway of complement activation plays a role in the pathogenesis of human glomerulonephritis. METHODS Direct immunofluorescence of 84 renal biopsies using an ...

BACKGROUND There has been no published study of biopsy-proven childhood glomerulonephritis in Malaysia. OBJECTIVES To determine the pattern of childhood glomerulonephritis in Johor, Malaysia from a histopathological perspective and the various indications used for renal biopsy in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective study was done of all renal biopsies from children under 16 years ...

Between 1980-1986, 219 renal biopsies were performed on patients with lupus nephritis (LN) presenting at the General Hospital, Kua1a Lumpur. There were 172 (78.5%) females and 47 (21.5%) males. The ethnic distribution of 48.4% Malays, 46.1% Chinese and 5.5% Indians reflected their proportional composition in the general population. Peak incidence (40.6%) of cases occurred in the third decade of...