Murine lupus nephritis. A structure-function study.

This report examines the correlation between glomerular injury and glomerular dysfunction in murine lupus nephritis. Glomerular filtration rate was measured by the clearance of inulin in conscious NZB/W female mice and shown to vary 12-fold in the animals tested. Detailed morphometric measurements were made on the perfused fixed kidneys. As disease progressed the surface density (Sv) of the open capillary loops decreased by 73%. This drop in Sv correlated with a 4-fold increase in mean glomerular volume (MGV, r = -0.79, p less than 0.0001). The "compensating" increase in MGV maintained or increased filtration surface area despite the loss of some capillary loops to proliferating and/or infiltrating cells. Filtration slit length/glomerulus and the filtration slit number/micron glomerular basement membrane varied 10-fold and were found to correlate directly with glomerular filtration rate (r = 0.64, p less than 0.0007 and r = 0.70, p less than 0.0001, respectively). When linear and multiple regression analyses were applied, all other structural measures, including filtration surface area, correlated with glomerular filtration rate poorly if at all. Glomerular permselective dysfunction (proteinuria) was measured as the fractional clearance of albumin (fractional clearance of albumin) and of IgG. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed the percentage of the glomerular basement membrane occupied by dense deposits, slit number/glomerular basement membrane, and glomerular basement membrane thickness statistically explained most (81%) of the variation in fractional clearance of albumin and IgG. These results suggest that epithelial slit length is the most important structural determinant of GFR and that the increase in MGV maintains filtration surface area despite evidence of an extensive inflammatory insult. The mechanism(s) of proteinuria in this model of lupus nephritis are consistent with either a focal increase in GBM permeability due to immune deposits and/or a diffuse increase in permeability due to GBM charge neutralization. The study provides insight as to why previous structure-function reports failed to find correlates of glomerular injury to glomerular dysfunction.