Cellular immunity and the tubulointerstitium

In the past two decades, there has been an increasing appreciation of the relationship between alterations in the interstitial compartment of the kidney and decrements in glomerular filtration rate. In human renal disease, injury patterns in the interstitial compartment consist of a spectrum from predominantly inflammatory to predominantly fibrotic. This review synthesizes information on the pathogenesis of inflammatory interstitial nephritis into a conceptual framework for understanding this important form of human renal disease.