CELLULAR-IMMUNITY IN INTERSTITIAL NEPHROPATHY

Inflammatory tubulointestitial nephritis (TIN), either as a primary or as a secondary event, plays an essential role in the development of a ll forms of chronic renal failure. Experimental models of TIN should h elp in understanding TIN in humans. As in experimental glomerulopathie s, the target antigen can be a kidney structural antigen, from the tub ular basement membrane (TBM) or not, or a foreign antigen. While some models are due to deposits of free antibodies or circulating immune co mplexes, many others involve cell-mediated immunity. This last aspect explains the importance and the originality of experimental TIN.