Assay of circulating immune complexes by immunonephelometry markers of immunonephropathy among young Nigerians

Earlier workers had noted that chronic renal insufficiency accounts for 1.6% of the total medical admissions in a tertiary health institution of Nigeria. Most of cases occur among Nigerians under 40 years of age, which stimulated our interest in the present study. Using laser immunonephelometry, we quantitated the circulating immune complexes (CIC) and correlated the results with those of the routine renal biochemistry. We found a high load of CIC among all the subjects studied. These complexes were unrestricted to any particular immunoglobulin class. Higher correlation was obtained between the serum urea and the sum total of the immunoglobulin classes, suggesting that polyclonal antigens may be involved in the immunonephropathy. We observed a peculiar curvilinear trend, when a consistent rise in the serum urea was correlated with an increase, then a decline in all the Ig classes. This threshold may mark the development of immune paralysis and subsequent renal shutdown.