[Immune complexes: studies on animal models].

A review is presented of some selected experiments conducted on animal models of immune complex-mediated diseases. The immune response and kinetics of antigen deposition are analysed in the model of systemic chronic serum sickness of rabbits and chickens. Experimental nephritis, induced by mercuric chloride, illustrates a pathogenesis in which autoantibodies to basement membranes become components of immune complexes. A recently developed Streptococcus mutans-induced nephritis in rabbits should make it possible to obtain some understanding of early pathogenetic mechanisms. These could very well be analogous to aspects of the pathogenesis of streptococcus-associated nephritides of man.