Collapsing glomerulopathy associated with natural killer cell leukemia: a case report and review of the literature
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2026

Measurement of Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity and Migration in the Context of Hepatic Tumor Cells
Published on: February 22, 2020
Miguel F Palma Diaz1, Raimund H Pichler, Roberto F Nicosia
1Department of Pathology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA. fpalmadiaz@mednet.ucla.edu
Abstract:
We report a case of collapsing glomerulopathy associated with natural killer cell leukemia in a previously healthy 27-year-old African American man. An initial kidney biopsy showed findings concordant with the cellular variant of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. A repeated biopsy 3 months later showed collapsing glomerulopathy, likely representing a morphologic evolution from a cellular variant into the collapsing glomerulopathy variant of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Collapsing glomerulopathy has been described in connection with a number of disparate disorders in which podocyte injury seems to be the common denominator. The close temporal association between clinical presentation and the development of nephropathy provides support for a direct pathogenic link between the underlying lymphoproliferative disorder and the glomerular lesions. We hypothesize that dysregulated cytokine production by the neoplastic cells led to podocyte alterations and eventually to the development of collapsing glomerulopathy.
Related Concept Videos
Immune Surveillance by NK Cells and Phagocytes
Natural Killer Cells: The Fast Responders
NK cells are large granular lymphocytes found in the blood and lymphatic system. These...
Nephrotic Syndrome I : Introduction
Cytotoxic T Cells-mediated Immune Response
Immunological surveillance is the ability of immune cells to monitor and eliminate infected cells with intracellular pathogens, neoplastically transformed cells, and cells with non-self antigens. Cytotoxic T cells and NK...
Cells of the Innate Immune Response
Phagocytes
Phagocytes police the peripheral tissues by removing cellular debris and responding to the invasion of foreign substances or pathogens. Many phagocytes attack and remove microorganisms even before lymphocytes detect them. The human body has two general...

