Lupus nephritis develops from a combination of genetic and environmental factors such as microbial infection. A role for microbial nucleic acids (e.g., via nucleic acid-specific Toll-like receptors [TLR]) was hypothesized, in this context, because microbial nucleic acids can trigger multiple aspects of autoimmunity in vitro and in vivo. Eight-week-old MRL(lpr/lpr) and MRL wild-type mice receive...

The gold standard to diagnose the lupus nephritis is the renal biopsy. It provides information not only for diagnosis but also for the treatment plan and the prognosis. Laboratory studies, including the immunological profile, play an essential role in diagnosing and evaluating the lupus nephritis activity. The patient is unlikely to have the active lupus nephritis with the combination of anti-d...

A 48-year-old woman with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) presented with generalized edema and arthralgia. She showed evidences of acute glomerulonephritis including nephrotic-ranged proteinuria. Because her serologic test results were consistent with those for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we performed laparoscopic renal biopsy that confirmed World Health Organization...

Dear Editor, Patients with acute renal failure due to pauci-immune necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis with antinuclear antibody (ANCA) seropositivity can present with positive lupus serologies.1 On the other hand, patients with lupus nephritis present with ANCA seroconversion in 20% of cases. The fact that systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and positive myeloperoxidase (MPO) ANCA tit...

A 43 year old woman who initially presented with the nephrotic syndrome, glomerulonephritis, and antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) was given the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). One year later the patient developed progressive subcutaneous nodules on her forearms, with histopathology of non-caseating granulomas. Further evaluation of the patient showed mediastinal lymphadenopathy an...

A 43-year-old woman, with a 3-month history of fatigue, anaemia and swollen lymph nodes, underwent biopsy of a lymph node, which revealed reactive lymphadenopathy. Due to an increased serum creatinine concentration and severe proteinuria, a kidney biopsy was performed, which revealed diffuse, segmental, proliferative, immune-complex glomerulonephritis with crescents. Electron microscopy showed ...

Glomerulonephritis stands third in terms of the etiologies for end-stage kidney disease in the USA. The aim of this study was to look at the patterns of biopsy-proven glomerulonephritis based on data from a single center.Kidney biopsy specimens of all patients above the age of 18 years, over a 10-year period, who had diagnosis of nondiabetic glomerular disease, were selected for the study.The m...

The pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus is thought to be primarily under genetic control, with environmental factors playing a secondary role. However, it has been shown recently that intraperitoneal injection of pristane (2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane) induces autoantibodies typical of lupus in BALB/c mice, a strain not usually considered to be genetically susceptible to the diseas...

Lupus glomerulonephritis is a common and serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affecting up to 50% of lupus patients. Recurrent lupus nephritis is rare, complicating as low as 1% of the lupus transplant population according to some authors. However, it may be underreported with more realistic recurrent rates oscillating from 2.8 to 8.7%. We report the case of a patient with...

Monocyte infiltration and activation of the coagulation system have been implicated in the pathophysiology of glomerulonephritis. In this study, spontaneous procoagulant activity (PCA) was measured in circulating mononuclear cells to determine whether elevated PCA correlated with the presence of proliferative glomerulonephritis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). No increase in...