[Studies of cell-mediated immunity in mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis--IgA nephropathy and non-IgA...

In order to clarify the abnormalities of cell-mediated immunity in patients with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis [IgA nephropathy (IgA N) and Non-IgA nephropathy (Non-IgA N)], lymphocyte subsets were analysed by using monoclonal antibodies with flow cytometric two-color analysis and interleukin-2 (IL-2) production from lymphocytes of the patients was measured by ELISA system. A markedly decreased percentage (11.6 +/- 10.5%) of CD4+ 45R+ cells was found in the patients with IgA N when the results were compared with the normal controls (20 +/- 6%) (P less than 0.01). No difference was found between patients with IgA N and the controls as to the percentage of CD4+ 45R-, CD8+, 11+ and CD8+ 11- cells, respectively. Patients with Non-IgA N also showed a significantly decreased percentage of CD4+ 45R+ cells (10.9 +/- 6.5%), while CD8+ 11+ cells was parallely lowered (7.4 +/- 5%) in compared with the controls (10 +/- 4%). The percentage of HLA-DR positive cells was found to be increased in the patients with both IgA N and Non-IgA N, although the antigen bearing cells were reduced after stimulation with Concanavalin-A (Con-A). No difference in IL-2 production from lymphocyte of both patients groups and the controls cultured with Con-A was found. These results suggested that a deficiency of suppressor inducer T cells played a part of the pathogenesis of IgA N and Non-IgA N.