Antinuclear autoantibodies in sera of patients with IgA nephropathy

IgA nephropathy (IgAN), assumed to be a chronic immune complex glomerulonephritis, has been sometimes associated with various autoimmune diseases and autoimmune phenomena including autoantibody production. The current study was aimed at thoroughly investigating the frequency of raised autoantibody titers against five common nuclear autoantigens in a large number of patients with IgAN as well as patients with other primary immune complex glomerulopathies and normal controls. The incidence of autoantibodies (greater than 2 SD less than 3 SD of controls) in the IgAN group ranged between 13% in the case of anticardiolipin antibodies, and 19% in the case of antiribonucleoprotein antibodies, yet was not found to be significantly different from the incidence observed in the other control groups. In none of the subjects a titer above 3 SD of the means of controls was found. Our study clearly points to the fact that IgAN, while being an immune-mediated disease, is not a clear-cut autoimmune condition. The finding of autoantibodies in these patients may be merely incidental.