S. Mezzano et al., DETECTION OF PLATELET-ACTIVATING-FACTOR IN PLASMA OF PATIENTS WITH STREPTOCOCCAL NEPHRITIS, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 4(2), 1993, pp. 235-242
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether platelet-activating
factor (PAF) is released in the plasma of patients with acute poststre
ptococcal glomerulonephritis, because previous studies have shown an i
nvolvement of platelets in the active phase of this disease. The resul
ts of this study indicate that PAF bioactive material is released in s
ignificant amounts in the plasma of 49 out of 50 patients with acute p
oststreptococcal glomerulonephritis. The observed release of PAF was n
ot a direct consequence of the bacterial infection, because it was min
imal or absent in patients with streptococcal infection without glomer
ular involvement. PAF bioactive material extracted and purified from t
he plasma of patients was shown to be chemically and biologically iden
tical to the synthetic C-16 PAF (1-O-hexadecyl-2-acetyl-sn-glyceryl 3-
phosphorylcholine).