Antiglomerular basement membrane antibody: antibody specificity in different forms of glomerulonephritis

Components were solubilized from human glomerular basement membrane by digestion with collagenase and pepsin or by extraction with guanidine-HCl either directly or after previous digestion with the enzyme. The diverse preparations were used as antigens in the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of antibody titers in sera from patients with Goodpasture syndrome and patients with other forms of glomerulonephritis, that is, systemic lupus erythematosus, periarteritis nodosa, and IgA-related nephropathy. Patients with Goodpasture syndrome had high titers of IgG antibodies reacting most strongly with collagenase digests. The antigen(s) was only partly solubilized by guanidine-HCl extraction, was destroyed by pepsin digestion as well as reduction, and partly destroyed by trypsin digestion. The antigen(s) is most likely noncollagenous protein. Antibodies from patients with other forms of nephritis were directed primarily against antigens in guanidine-HCl extracts, while the antigen(s) was not solubilized by collagenase digestion. Pepsin digestion destroyed the antigen(s). The antibodies were of a different class, that is, the patients with systemic lupus erythematosus had IgG and IgA as well as IgM antibodies; the patients with periarteritis nodosa had IgM or IgG and IgA antibodies, while the patients with IgA-related nephritis had the highest recorded titers of IgA but also had IgG as well as IgM antibodies. None of the patients had antibodies directed against triple helical collagen. The antibody response in anti-GBM antibody-related nephritis, then, is different both with respect to antigen and antibody class and depends on the underlying disease syndrome.