Complement and leukocyte independent proteinuria and eicosanoid synthesis in rat membranous nephropathy.

We examined the effect of complement depletion and leukocyte depletion on an experimental model of membranous nephropathy. Nephrosis was induced in 200-gm male Sprague-Dawley rats by priming with cationic bovine gamma-globulin in adjuvant on day 1 followed by intravenous challenge with antigen starting on day 10. No naive control rats had immunofluorescent deposits in glomeruli; urine protein was less than 10 mg/24 hour and glomerular thromboxane synthesis was 658 +/- 64 ng/mg glomerular dry weight. In contrast, all rats primed and challenged with cationic bovine gamma-globulin had intense granular capillary wall deposits of rats IgG, bovine gamma-globulin, C3 and C5; severe proteinuria (183 +/- 24 mg/24 hour) was observed, associated with a 3-fold increase in glomerular thromboxane (2,393 +/- 574 ng/mg, all p less than 0.01 versus naive controls). In some rats, administration of cobra venom factor and antiserum to rat C3, starting on day 8 was used to deplete complement; hemolytic C3 and C5 were less than 2% of normal at sacrifice. These rats had IgG and bovine gamma-globulin deposits, whereas they lacked glomerular C3 or C5. Proteinuria (209 +/- 28 mg/24 hour) and glomerular thromboxane (2,087 +/- 394 ng/mg) were markedly increased compared with control, but no different from normocomplementemic rats primed and challenged with cationic bovine gamma-globulin. In other rats, depletion of leukocytes was achieved by 1,000 R x-irradiation on day 7; at sacrifice, irradiated rats had 1,270 +/- 462 wbc/microliter versus 10,375 +/- 1,652 in nephrotic rats given no other treatment, with unaltered differentials. These rats had glomerular deposits of rat IgG, bovine gamma-globulin, C3 and C5 indistinguishable from nephrotic rats with normal leukocyte counts in intensity and distribution. Proteinuria (202 +/- 30) and glomerular thromboxane (2,358 +/- 189 ng/mg) were markedly elevated compared with naive controls, but were not different from the normocomplementemic or complement-depleted groups primed and challenged with antigen. An additional control group included rats primed with ovalbumin on day 1, irradiated with 1,000 R on day 7, and challenged with cationic bovine gamma-globulin starting on day 10. This group had granular capillary wall deposits of bovine gamma-globulin, but not deposits of IgG, C3, or C5; urine protein excretion (less than 10 mg/24 hours) and glomerular thromboxane synthesis (613 +/- 90) were not different from naive controls. Glomerular prostaglandin E2 synthesis did not differ among the five groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)