Nephritogenic glycoprotein. XII. Focal glomerulonephritis with myeloid bodies produced in rats by synthetic analogues of the glycopeptide, nephritogenoside.

Glomerular lesions were successfully induced in rats by a single footpad injection of synthetic analogues of nephritogenoside [alpha-Glc-(1----6)-alpha-Glc-(1-NHCO-Asn, and -Gln)]. Characteristic morphological changes of these glomerular lesions are (1) focal glomerulonephritis (FGN) and (2) the appearance of myeloid bodies in the epithelial cells of the podocytes. FGN produced by a single injection of the synthetic analogues of nephritogenoside may provide an experimental animal model of this potentially diffuse disease, since morphological changes in the early stage of sclerosing glomerulonephritis (end-stage kidney) induced by a single footpad injection of natural nephritogenoside are often identical to those of FGN.