[Is hepatitis B virus (HBV) the pathogenic antigen of IgA nephropathy].

IgA nephropathy (IgA N) is one of the commonest glomerular diseases in China, where HBV carrier is not rare. In order to know whether HBsAg or HBcAg may induce IgA N, 105 cases of IgA N from most parts of China were studied. 8 of them were associated with HBs antigenemia. Neither HBsAg or HBcAg could be detected in the glomeruli of these 8 patients with and of 30 patients without HBs antigenemia by PAP method. IgA type anti HBc antibody was also negative in the serum of 21 cases of IgA N regardless of presence of absence of HBs antigenemia. It is concluded that HBsAg or HBcAg could not be confirmed to be pathogenic antigen of IgA N in our series.