FIBRILLARY GLOMERULONEPHRITIS RELATED TO SERUM FIBRILLAR IMMUNOGLOBULIN-FIBRONECTIN COMPLEXES

Fibrillary glomerulonephritis is a disease of uncertain origin and pat hogenesis characterized by nonamyloidotic fibrils in glomeruli. We rep ort immunohistological, immunochemical, and biochemical studies of a s erum fibrillar cryoprecipitate obtained from a patient with fibrillary glomerulonephritis, that formed on prolonged storage at 4 degrees C. By Western blot and amino acid sequence analysis, the cryoprecipitated fibril components consisted of immunoglobulins, heavy chains gamma an d mu, light chains kappa and lambda, and fibronectin, similar to the p roteins identified by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy in the glomerular fibrils. These findings support the hypothesis that serum precursors may be the source of the fibrillar deposits and sugg est a role for immunoglobulin-fibronectin complexes in the pathogenesi s of fibrillary glomerulonephritis. (C) 1996 by the National Kidney Fo undation, Inc.