Transplantation-induced immune complex kidney disease in rats with unilateral manifestation in the allografted kidney.

Kidney transplantation between major histocompatibility system-identical rat strains LEW.1N (donor) and BN (recipient) is regularly followed by serious immune complex (membranous) glomerulonephritis. The disease localizes in the transplant only and spares the recipient's own contralateral kidney. The recipients develop both circulating immune complexes, as well as circulating antibodies against an allogeneic, tubular epithelial antigen of the donor. Antibodies eluted from the diseased kidneys display the same specificity. The transplant disease, therefore, is not autoimmune glomerulonephritis but an alloimmune, organ-specific illness unrelated to the usual histocompatibility system.