Morphological findings in 70 kidneys of living donors for renal transplant.

Seventy donor kidneys for transplant were studied with light microscopy (LM), electron microscopy (EM) and immunofluorescence (IM) for C3, C4, Clq, IgG, IgA, IgE, IgM, and antifibrin; the samples were taken just before transplanting the allograft kidney. Glomerular changes were found in 35.7% of apparently normal living donors: 9 cases showed relative glomerular ischemia with an irregular basal membrane (12.9%); 5 cases showed a diffusely widened basal membrane without antecedents of hyperglycemia (7.1%); in one case (1.4%) there was a lesion similar to type 1 mesangio-capillary glomerulonephritis with C3++, IgG++, IgA+, and IgM+; in another case (1.4%) there were scant isolated C3 glomerular, subepithelial deposits with indentation of the basement membrane of the immunocomplex type with a microhematuria which was demonstrated only after donation, and in 9 cases (among them two pairs of siblings) there were mesangial IgA and mesangial electron-dense deposits compatible with Berger's disease (12.9%). None of these glomerulopathies were evident under LM.